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Guide to Statistical Information

In looking for statistics, one useful approach is to begin by asking a few questions.

  • What group or organization would be producing such statistics?
    • (For example: domestic education statistics -- the US Dept. of Education is a good bet.)
  • Why would they need the data, and how would they acquire it?
  • Would they have the means and incentive to publish it?
  • Would they be required to report to information to a government agency (which one)?
In other words, begin by considering where you might reasonably expect to find the statistical data you are seeking. Thinking about your information needs at the beginning of your search can sometimes save you hours of fruitless effort.
  • An approach that usually does NOT work well is searching the open Web (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.)

Finding Aids & Starting Points


The Statistical Abstract of the United States is a good basic reference for U.S. statistics. It is available in print (going back to 1879), and online versions. 

  • NOTE: Due to federal budget cuts, the Statistical Abstract will no longer be published by the US Census Bureau. (2012 is their last edition.) However, you can look at the latest, and earlier, editions for the sources of tables. This is also a good way to find further statistics on the same topic.
    • Stay tuned for new, commercially-published version of the Statistical Abstract.
  • The Document Center also has statistical yearbooks for many other countries.

Statistical Sources and Data Set Sources* links from the Document Center's pages.

  • Most of these links are to Government or IGO (International Governmental Organization) sources, but non-governmental sources are included here as well.
    • Governments are important--and sometimes only--sources of data and statistics. The federal government of the United States is the world's largest producer of statistics.
  • Consult with Document Center staff for help in locating the many other government statistical publications in the library's collections.

*Note that the pages of data set sources are limited to those sources from which data can be downloaded in a format that can be manipulated. Sometimes these are very large datasets, e.g. in zipped files, and may require special software.

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Library Resources


General


Search the UO Local Catalog for publications giving statistics on a particular subject

  • For older sources of statistical data you may have to use print indexes:
    • American Statistics Index, which covers U.S. Federal government statistical publications back to 1973,
    • Statistical Reference Index, which indexes private and state government statistical sources from 1980,
    • Index to International Statistics, which covers the statistical output of international organizations.
  • Microfiche extracts from many of the publications indexed are available in the library's Document Center - Microforms Collections (backfiles, 1980 - 2003 only).

Library Databases (UO only)

  • OECD iLibrary:  The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development provides statistics on economics & finance, health, education, and development for its member countries.
  • Oxford Social Explorer provides easy access to a wealth of statistics from the US Census, the American Community Survey, US Religious Information, and carbon emissions data, available as tables, downloads and maps.
  • Tablebase: Tabular data on business-related topics such as market share, market size, capacity, production, etc.

by Subject

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Other Campus Resources

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Maintained by: Victoria Mitchell,  vmitch@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 04/04/2012