Data & Statistics

“Finding the best data to address a research question requires that one understand the kinds of data that are likely to be available, who collects the data, and where they can be found.”
– Gary M. Klass, Just Plain Data Analysis, xiii

This guide will help you find the best databases, search tools, and other resources for finding statistics and other datasets related to various topics. 

The following questions will determine where you need to look and whether the data is available:

• What level of observation/analysis do you need? (e.g. individuals, communities, states, countries...)

• What time period? (most recent? 5 years? historical time series?..)

• What frequency? (annual, quarterly, monthly, ...)

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.