Internet_Statistics

toc =Statistics on the Internet=



This guide is designed to help you research statistical information on the Internet. The best information on this topic is located on the internet, as internet sources will have the most up-to-date information.
 * [|RCC Library Home Page]: Most materials found in this research guide are available at the library's home page.
 * Reference Desk: Please contact me if you have any questions concerning this guide or research.

=The Internet and Statistics= The Internet is the best place to get the most recent, update statistics, especially from government agencies. Some government agencies only publish statistics electronically and no longer publish the print form. For statistics, it is a good rule of thumb to start with sites that end in .gov, as opposed to .com. All government websites end in .gov. To do a google search that will bring up only government sites, type the following into your search bar: site:.gov [your search term/s]

**Good Search Terms to use:** Statistical research and (search terms) Statistics and (search terms)

=Web Sites= There are many sources for researching statistics on the internet. These web sites have been evaluated by library staff. Remember to always evaluate internet resources. To find out more about evaluating web sites, [|Lesley University] has a very good guide.

Federal Statistics
**General** Data and Statistics- USA.gov Portal for U.S. government statistics.

FedStats FedStats tracks data collected from federal agencies. You can sort by agency and topic. Also provides MapStats, which will bring up a statistical profile for each state.

Statistical Abstract of the United States Summary of the political, social and economic organization of the United States.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Crime** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Drug Enforcement Administration] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The DEA's statistic page.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">FBI Uniform Crime Reports <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reports include //Crime in the United States//, an annual compilation of volume and rate of crime offenses for the nation, the states, and individual agencies. This report also includes arrest, clearance, and law enforcement employee data. //Hate Crime Statistics// presents data regarding incidents, offenses, victims, and offenders in reported crimes that were motivated by a bias against the victim's perceived race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. //Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted// is a compilation of data concerning the felonious and accidental line-of-duty deaths and assaults of law enforcement officers.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">US Department of Justice- Bureau of Justice Statistics <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Links to a large number of PDF reports by the DOJ, organized in alphabetical order and searchable by keyword. Also provides key facts by topic, data collections, data analysis tools, and terms and definitions for conducting criminal justice research.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Drugs** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Office of National Drug Control Policy <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Publications, reports, statistics and fact books.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAMHSA- Office of Applied Studies <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Statistics on drug abuse, prevention and treatment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Economics** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Federal Reserve <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Contains surveys and reports about statistical and historical data relating to finance, bank assets, stocks, household finance, and more.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">U.S.Bureau of Economic Analysis <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Access Regional (state and metropolitan area), national, international, and industry economic accounts data.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Department of Labor - Consumer Expenditure Survey <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">This site presents the findings of two surveys, the quarterly Interview Survey and the Diary Survey, that provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. The results are shown in tables.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Education** National Center for Education Statistics The NCES collects and analyzes data related to education in the U.S.and other nations - the results of which are presented on their website. It is the most comprehensive site related to education statistics in the US, and as such it presents official publications.They provide a search tool to allow quick access to charts, tables and figures.

The Chronicle of Higher Education Facts & Figures The Chronicle conducts annual surveys of higher education statistics. Their data includes faculty salaries, public opinion, endowments & fundraising, student enrollment, test scores, financial aid, graduation rates and more.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Health** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Centers for Disease Control & Prevention <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The CDC is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, working to protect public health by providing information to enhance health decisions. Its website has comprehensive coverage of US health statistics. Data and statistics range from the broad (Annual Report of Health Statistics) to the specific (Chronic Disease Indicators) and can be sorted by topic. Many areas of data can be sorted by state and further by county within a state.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">National Institute of Mental Health <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research. Its website provides a few small reports containing statistical data about mental health in the US. Reports include The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders inAmerica, and Suicide in the US: Statistics and Prevention.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Immigration** Department of Homeland Security The DHS website has up-to-date US government statistics about immigration. The homepage provides recently released reports. DHS reports are downloadable in PDF format. A Yearbook of Immigration Statistics is also available for download, which is a collection of tables that provide data on foreign nationals who are legally living in the US. Other reports are organized by topic, including Refugees and Asylees and Unauthorized Immigrant Population Estimates, among others.

Southern Poverty Law Center SPLC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to fight hatred and bigotry and seek justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Immigrant justice is one of their priorities, and as part of this mission, they have conducted research and written reports on immigration topics, such as Immigrant Women in the US Food Industry, Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South, and Guestworker Programs in the US, among other reports. The reports are available directly on the web, with conveniently hyperlinked sections.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Labor** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Department of Labor is the federal agency responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, and re-employment services. The BLS tracks statistics related to these issues, including inflation and prices, consumer spending, employment & unemployment, benefits, productivity, and workplace injuries. Many of these areas of research can be sorted by national or local focus and other factors. Many sections contain news releases, databases, tables, and publications.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Population** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">US Census Bureau, American Fact Finder <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">This fact sheet provides basic census information, based on the 2006-2009 census. Covers social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics.

State and Local Statistics
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Massachusetts Office of Public Safety <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This office publishes crime statistics, reports, and research. Choose an area of research from a simple list, which link to reports published in PDF format. Crime reports are published on an annual basis.
 * Crime**

Boston Police Department Crime Statistics The homepage of the BPD Crime Statistics has frequently updated of crimes that took place in the last 24 hours. At the bottom, there are links to weekly crime statistics, updated frequently.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Economics** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Economic Census 2007 (State of MA)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The website contains tables which tracks business establishments, sales, payroll, and paid employees for different categories of business and manufacturing in the state of MA.

Economic Census (Metro Boston) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The website contains tables which tracks business establishments, sales, payroll, and paid employees for different categories of business and manufacturing in the Boston metro area.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Education** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The MA DOE provides statistics on district, state, and individual school data. Examples of the reports published on the site include MCAS performance, enrollment data, teacher salaries and graduation rates.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Office of Health and Human Services <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Bureau of Health Information, Statistics, Research and Evaluation collects legal, medical, and statistical information on births, deaths, cancers, health behaviors, and injuries. Click Report Topics to find a list of official reports on these issues. Some topics are broken down into state-, city-, and town-level. The site provides reports in PDF format dating back to the mid-1990s.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Health **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Health of Boston

The Boston Public Health Commission publishes several documents related to public health research. This link takes you too the 2010 Health of Boston report. Since 1996, this report has been commissioned annually to provide information about the health of our city residents. More of the BPHC’s reports are available here.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Population** US Census Bureau, American Fact Finder (State of MA) This fact sheet provides basic census information for Massachusetts, based on the 2006-2009 census. Covers social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics.

US Census Bureau, American Fact Finder (City of Boston) This fact sheet provides basic census information for the city of Boston, based on the 2006-2009 census. Covers social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics.

Boston Population Statistics The Boston Public Library provides a small amount of demographic data about the city of Boston. The Boston Population Statistics provides a historical list of census information, beginning in 1638 and ending in 2000, and provides data about the number of people living in the city. It also has a Boston Population by Race table, which provides population information according to the racial categories of each specific census, beginning in 1790.

American Housing Survey for the Boston Metropolitan Area: 2007 The link above is to a PDF report about housing in Boston based on a 2007 census. The document is quite detailed and contains data about population per square mile; types, sizes, and conditions of structures; sizes of units and lots, and other related housing information. While the document would be difficult to scan quickly (it is longer than 300 pages), it is useful place to search if you know a particular topic in housing that you want to research, which you could enter into the PDF search bar at the top.
 * Housing **

=Citing Sources: Style Guides=

__[|APA Style Tutorial]__ [|Duke Library Guide to Assembling a List of Works Cited] [|Laguardia Community College Library MLA and APA citation style] [|The Owl at Purdue: APA Formatting and Style Guide] [|The Owl at Purdue: MLA 2009 Formatting and Style Guide]

=Basic Research Help= Please click the Ask a Librarian icon if you have any questions concerning these guides, need help finding material for your research or any general questions you might have.
 * Looking for books? Search our [|Online Catalog].
 * Looking for articles? Search our [|Databases].
 * Can't find what you are looking for? Use our [|InterLibrary Loan Form].

**General Library Information**

 * Contact Us
 * [|Staff]
 * [|Hours]

Research guide prepared on 12/10/2010 by Vered Meir, modified 7/6/2011 by Quinn Eureka