Where to Start Your Search - Statistical Compendia

Statistical Abstract of the United States

For print edition in the library, see HA202 .U5 (Current volume in Reference Room; older vols. in stacks)

Summary statistics on many economic and social topics compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau. Web version features downloadable Excel tables.

In the print edition, see chapter introductions and table footnotes to identify sources with more detailed data.

Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present

For print edition in the library, see HA202.H27 2006 (5 vols. in the Reference Room)

Tables in both PDF and Excel formats for viewing or downloading. This 2006 edition from Cambridge University Press is the long-awaited update of the 1975 "bicentennial edition" published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

See the essays for excellent information for tracking historical statistical series in both government and commercial publications.

United Nations Statistical Yearbook

HA12.5 .U63 (Reference room; older vols. in oversize stacks)

Summary statistics for United Nations member countries; this compendium includes economic series. A PDF version of the current edition is available online.

United Nations Demographic Yearbook

HA17 .D45 (Reference room; older vols. in oversize stacks)

A supplement to the United Nations Statistical Yearbook; includes series about population and other social indicators. Some series available on the web in Excel and PDF.

International Historical Statistics

(Reference room; see Reed catalog for call numbers of individual series)

Series of compendia published by Palgrave Macmillan; contains statistics by world regions for the time peroid 1750 to 2000.

Web Directories for Data

Data for Local Communities

Locate data about Oregon counties and cities contained in state and federal agencies web sites.

FedStats

A directory of data available from over 70 U.S. government agencies. Includes useful features for locating government data by subject and geographic area, links to key indicators, and descriptions of activities of major data-collecting agencies.

Statistical Resources on the Web

This useful directory by the Documents Center at the University of Michigan Library includes data on the web from domestic, international, and non-governmental sources.

U.S. Census Bureau

In addition to being a great source of data, the Census web site has a wonderful A-Z subject index.

Statistical Indexes & Data Sources

American FactFinder

Interactive data and mapping tool from the U.S. Census Bureau. Includes population, housing, and other social and economic data from the 1990-2000 census and data on business establishments from the 2002 Economic Census.

FRED II

Economic data to view or download from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

National accounts data from China via the University of Michigan's China Data Center.

Geostat Statistics and Social Science Data

A variety of domestic and international data sources with easy-to-use interfaces from the Geospatial & Statistical Data Center at the University of Virginia Library. Many frequently-used compendia, such as County Business Patterns, are included. NOTE: Some resources are restricted to users at the University of Virginia.

ICPSR
(Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research)

Extensive library of social data. Download your own files. A statistical software package (e.g., Stata) is needed to use the data.

International Financial Statistics

Select and download indicators from the International Monetary Fund.

Lexis-Nexis Statistical

A subscription database with several features:

• Tables -- search and download tables from sources such as Statistical Abstract of the U.S.

• Publications -- a searchable index to abstracts of tables published in printed government reports and websites, including links to data sources.

• Statistical DataSets -- create tables based on several source data sets. Choose Customize Data to get started.

This is the most comprehensive index for publications of the U.S. government, international organizations, foreign countries, U.S. state governments, and non-governmental organizations.

Penn World Table

Download economic data for 168 countries from this site provided by the Center for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania.

SourceOECD

(use Firefox 1.5 or higher)

Portal site for all electronic publications of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development.

For data, choose "Statistics" from the navigation bar at the top of the main page. (Reed does not subscribe to all data sets. For more information, please contact the Social Sciences Librarian.)

Stat-USA

A subscription service from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce on all aspects of trade and economic conditions. Includes the National Trade Data Bank and State of the Nation Library.

TableBase

A subscription database that locates and retrieves tables published in commercial as well as government publications. A unique source of statistics from marketing and industry sources not overwise available to Reed students.

Gateway to United Nations data sets on a wide range of subjects.

World Development Indicators Online

Extract data by country from hundreds of economic and social indicators compiled by the World Bank. Subscription database.

How to Cite Statistics

Citations for statistics should enable your readers to locate the table or data that you have used in your assignment or paper. At a minimum, a citation should include:

• creator of the data (often an organization or government agency)
• date of publication
• where it was published
• URL of the web site where you found the data (if from the Internet)
• date that you accessed the data, only if significant (i.e., data is updated without adjustment to publication date)

Example from a printed book:

U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Residential energy consumption, expenditures, and average price, 1980 to 1997. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 120th ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 587. Table no. 949.

Example from a web site:

U.S. Energy Information Agency, 2001. Renewable energy consumption by energy source, 1995-1999. Table H1, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/rea_data/tableh1.html.

Example from a database with session-dependent URLs; originally published in a journal:

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2001. Personal consumption expenditures by major type of product. Survey of Current Business (May): D-7, http://web.lexis-nexis.com/statuniv.**

**Session-dependent URL from search, not used in citation: http://web.lexis-nexis.com/statuniv/document?_m=a825888ad8faa3b025b663d54e848e3e&_ansset=A-WD-B-AW-MsSEWY-UUW-EEEVDCYWY-CYEDVUCVZ-AW-U&_docnum=9&wchp=dGLSzV-lSBAt&_md5=3d6041e526acf36de69bd13acb6faf92.

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