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Data & Statistics

Browse resources for finding statistics and datasets

Ask a Middlebury Librarian

Sources for Additional Data

Tips for Finding Statistics

Not finding what you need in this guide? Try these strategies as well:

  • Check the data sources used by books or articles on your topic (in the bibliography or table caption).
  • Think of which organizations are likely to produce the data and check the web sites of those sources.
  • Try a specialized data search engine such as Zanran (web search engine for finding data and statistics in graphs, tables, & reports).
  • Ask a librarian.  They are familiar with a variety of general and specialized sources.

Tips for Evaluating Statistics & Infographics

Just like any source, run it through the C.R.A.A.P. Test or C.R.A.P. Test to help you evaluate what you find.

Specific tips for evaluating data sources:

  • If the source is responsible for the data, find out more about the source, author, and methodology - read About Us pages and accompanying documentation, such as codebooks.  Do more research about the source if need be.
  • If the source uses outside data, go to the original source and verify - see if they "cherry-picked" the data, thus distorting it or misleading by omission.
  • Look for other reputable sources that either corroborate or challenge the data.

In addition here are tips for evaluating visualizations such as infographics:

Using Datasets with Stata

Other Video Tutorials for Statistical Software / Programs