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Reference Resources: Statistics

Online

Places to Begin

Before getting started consider which government, agency or organization might have collected data on your topic. Also consider the time period that you want, current, historical, and the format you would like, table to print or data to download to a spreadsheet.

https://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/statsnew.html

Subjects covered include: agriculture, business and industry, consumer, cost of living, demographics, economics, education, energy, environment, finance and currency, foreign economics, foreign governments, foreign trade, U.S. government finances, health, housing, labor, military, politics, science, sociology, transportation, and weather. Nicely annotated.

https://www.bls.gov/bls/other.htm

Links to government statistical agencies in the United States and in several dozen countries around the world.

United States Sources

https://www.census.gov:80/stat_abstract/

Contains a collection of statistics (over 1400 tables and graphs) on social, economic, political, and international subjects. Sources for each table are listed; use this information to identify additional sources. Also accessible through Statistical Universe.

Economics

https://www.economagic.com/

This is a good starting place for the basic economic statistics: CPI, PPI, GDP, Interest Rates, and more.

https://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

Very complete listing of web sites compiled by the University of Michigan Documents Center.

https://www.econdata.net

Regional economic data on the web.

https://www.stls.frb.org/fred

Monthly, daily, weekly, data on GDP, CPI, PPI, interest rates, and much more.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/

Browse or download sections to a spreadsheet.

https://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/
Downloadable statistics. Many series go back 30 years or much further. This report contains economic policy and outlook, economic trends, and over 100 pages of tables on employment, income and production.

Links to current major economic indicators.

https://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 1998.

https://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/steclab.html

From the University of Michegan. Major links to the “major” collectors of labor and employment data. Mainly U.S. government sites.

Demographics

https://www.census.gov/

The Bureau of the Census collects data about the people and economy of the United States and produces a wide variety of statistical data products. This Web source includes the Statistical Abstract of the United States, TIGERfiles, Trade Statistics, and an up-to-date population clock. Contains a lot of surveys such as the Current Population Survey and State and Metropolitan Area Data Book. For U.S. geographic area data choose “Geography” from the opening screen and then “Map Stats.” For all other topics choose “Subjects A to Z” which includes links to other government statistics sites.

https://factfinder.census.gov

Data access and dissemination system that provides useful facts and information about your community, your economy, and your society. The system will find and retrieve the information you need from some of the Census Bureau’s largest data sets.

https://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/econ/www/

Highlights from the latest U.S. Economic Indicators, Agriculture, Manufacturing and Construction, County and City Data Book, County Business Patterns, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, Current Industrial Reports, Economic Data Programs Overview, Economic Census and Surveys, Governments, Income and Poverty, International trade, Research, and Statistical Abstract of the United States.

County and City Data Book and another at County and City Data Book Ref. HA202.S84

Find the latest official statistics for 1,078 cities, all 3,141 U.S. counties, and 11,097 places of 2,500 or more inhabitants. Includes socioeconomic and housing data from the 1990 census. Also includes median income, tax base, and more than 100 other variables for counties and cities nationwide like ranking in population and land area, minority population, median rent, public transportation.

Historical US Statistics

https://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html

Data from colonial times to 1970.

https://www.census.gov/statab/www/minihs.html

Time series data for major series

https://hsus.cambridge.org

Annual time series of the U.S. population, economic indicators, social conditions, and government. From colonial times to the present.

https://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/index.shtml

The data describe the people and economy of the United States between 1790 and 1860. Data are available for any county in most states during this time period. Great searchable database.

Colorado

These more specialized sources serve as a quick start to some Colorado and Colorado Springs data. Many information sources listed under the United States section of this guide also provide information at the state, county and local level.

https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/govpubs/online.htm

An online statistical abstract for the State of Colorado compiled by the University of Colorado Library.

https://www.dola.state.co.us/is/cedishom.htm

Statistical information from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Information presented at State, County and City levels. Demographic and economic data.

https://dola.colorado.gov/demog/AllHist1.cfm

Data back to 1870.

https://library.ppld.org/CommunityConnections/economicindicators/

Database of short articles and facts about Colorado Springs economic and demographic data. Compiled by Pikes Peak Library District.

International

https://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stecfor.html

One of the best sites. This University of Michigan site is focused on statistical resources on the Web for foreign and international economics.

https://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/intl.html

Links to homepages of IMF, World Bank, United Nations, etc.

https://unstats.un.org/unsd/databases.htm

Statistical compilation for the United Nations. Contains selected data series from 30 specialized international sources, including labor, agricultural, nutritional and industrial statistics. Years of coverage (1958 – current) vary with data series/countries selected.

https://databank.worldbank.org/

Free databases of economic indicators from the World Bank, including World Development Indicators (WDI), Gender Statistics, Education Statistics, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics, Quarterly External Debt Statistics/SDDS and /GDDS, Africa Development Indicators, Global Economic Monitor (GEM), and Millennium Development Goals. The World databank interface can export statistics to Excel, and generate customizable maps and charts. Note: if problems are encountered with this website, please exit your browser completely and restart it; or try using a different browser. Coverage: 1960-current

https://www.prb.org

Provides statistical and narrative information on U.S. and international population trends and their implications.

https://www.imfstatistics.org/

Provides users with time series which summarize each country’s balance of payments, with collateral data on its principal components (trade and reserves), and data on the principal cause and effect elements (monetary expansion and contraction, government surpluses and deficits, production, prices and interest rates). Updated monthly. Data from the IMF, exchange rates, exports, imports. Data back to 1948 if available. Print volumes in 2nd floor Periodicals area – current and bound.

Comparable and harmonized data of the the European Union, its Member States and its partners.

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/

Books, journals, working papers, statistics, and glossaries published by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Users can search by country, theme, date, content type, and more. The OECDFactBook is available from 2005 to current, with data tables and graphs that can be exported to Excel. This database was formerly known as SourceOECD. Coverage: 1967 –

https://www.adb.org/Statistics/default.asp

Time series statistics, downloadable. Economic and social statistics for individual Asian countries.

https://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_infonation.htm

Quick reference compilation of current United Nations statistics taken from Demographic Yearbook and Statistical Yearbook. No historical data. Not detailed. 4 countries can be compared.

https://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt_index.php

“Provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 168 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000.”

https://www.nationmaster.com/

This site allows you to compare the various characteristics of any two countries of the world. You can also get a summary of information about a specific country, or rank the countries of the world on a variety of characteristics, such as inflation rate, literacy rate, land area, and birth rate.

 

Data

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/busecon/macroecon/

Provide a list of sources by date, geographic area and macroeconomic data category. For example, if you need to find European production data back to the 1820’s, this book will suggest a source for the information.

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu

The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) provides large data sets such as public opinion polls, attitude surveys, health information, results of research projects. Data may require use of specialized software such as SPSS or SAS.

https://odwin.ucsd.edu/idata/

A collection of links to downloadable datasets compiled by the University of California at San Diego.

https://coloradocollege.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://galenet.galegroup.com/

Search for associations that have collected statistics on a topic.

Print

Business Statistics Ref. HA211.U5

United States commercial and economic conditions statistics. Historical series for most stats in 1951. Published by U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. Use the Index on the back cover. Some current data is available at the “BEA web site”: https://www.bea.doc.gov/.

Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources Ref. HF5351.E93 1999

Provides suggestions for sources of information. For example, use this if you are unsure which book or website has labor statistics. Mainly U.S. sources.

International Business Information Sources Ref .HF54.5.P33 1998

Similar to the title above but focusing on international and foreign country sources.

International Historical Statistics: Europe 1750 – 1993 (Print Resource) Ref. HA1107.M5 1998

Contains major statistical information on the countries of Europe. Similar volumes for other areas of the world listed below.

International Historical Statistics: The Americas, 1750 – 1993 (Print Resource) Ref. HA175 .M55 1998

International Historical Statistics: Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750 – 1993 (Print Resource) Ref. HA4675 .M552 1998