Statistical Sources

Class projects often require statistical data. You may need to track down one specific piece of information, or you may need to find and analyze a large data set.

Whatever your needs, this guide can point you to various agencies, institutions and organizations that collect and make available statistical data.

To locate statistics, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I need information from the United States, or should I be looking for global information?
• Who (government agency, educational institution, or other organization) might collect the information?
• What is the time frame I'm looking for? Data is often collected cyclically, such as once a decade (like the US Census), annually, quarterly, monthly, etc.

The United States government is a major collector and publisher of statistics of all kinds. There are also numerous non-governmental organizations that publish statistics.

For any source, check to see if the information was originally collected by the group or agency publishing it. A reliable source will always cite the origin of the data.