Finding Statistical Information

Government is the largest compiler of statistics on any geographic level. There are statistics from the United States government on a variety of topics including state and local governmental units.  Do you want interest rate information? Infant mortality? Highway fatality rates? An index is a tool that recognizes the need to locate information without having to look through or browse every document available. It extracts relevant characteristics of the data like title, author, issuing agency and assigns a topical category to expedite the identification and location or relevant information. Remember that it is more difficult to find historical statistics than current statistics. The databases listed below provide a front-end to searching for statistical information.

Subject Index to Data and Statistics Resources This is a link to a listing of databases or Web sites with statistics and/or data by subjects such as agriculture, business, consumers, courts, crime, demographics, development, economics, education, energy, environment, government finance, health/medical, labor, politics, state and local government, science and technology and trade. Some are databases only available to the faculty staff and students of the Claremont Colleges, and you must Log in remotedly to access these databases, if you are not in the library.Web sites are includes for international, federal, state and local jurisdictions. This list does not attempt to be comprehensive but lists some commonly used sites. Please ask the librarian if you have any questions.

Meta-Sites with Indexes and Search Engines to Statistical Data

LexisNexisStatistical
This database indexes statistics in U.S.government publications ssued by the federal government, and will add statistics from [state, international and non-governmental by 1999] This index will has replaced Statistical Masterfile. This resource is available only to users on the Claremont Colleges network.   It actually replaces the current (1998-) American Statistics Index (ASI)  (1974 -1991) HON MICROFORM REF Z 7554 I53. (This resource is available outside the Libraries only to students, faculty and staff of The Claremont Colleges).

Public Data Sets Held by the School of Politics and Economics (CGU)

ICPSR (InterUniversity Consortium for Political and Social Science Research)
ICPSR is a vast data archive of political and social science data for research and instruction. Remote access is available to the Claremont Colleges Academic Community. Good for public opinion polls, crime data, health data, drug use and attitude data, and other social indicators. The most popular files are: American National Election Studies Cumulative File, 1948-2000; General Social Surveys, 1972-2002; World Values Surveys & European Values Surveys; and the Common Core of Data (CCD) Series. Contact Reference Librarian Ruth Schooley, at 607-7122, or ruth.schooley@libraries.claremont.edu for help using the data files.Frequently Asked Questions about ICPSR

Roper Polls.
Search under Quick Links, then Catalog of Holdings. From The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, "the world's largest archive of survey data". It's great for searching election exit polls, public opinion polls, and other survey data. It also provides raw data files to analyze on your own desktop. It contains indexes to polls back to 1940s and electronic access to codebooks from the mid-90s. Contact Reference Librarian Ruth Schooley for help in obtaining raw data files - ruth.schooley@libraries.claremont.edu or x77122. Frequently Asked Questions about Roper Polls

Statistical Resources on The Web (University of Michigan Documents Center)
This site is awesome, and believe it or not almost too complete - however it has been created by a documents librarian (who has won all kinds of awards for their web site) If you see something here that you think we should link to, let us know! Organized by categories, links to web sites, governmental as well as non-governmental  Some databases are available through IP address only - so you will have to go through the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges Home Page for OUR link to those resources.

United States/Federal Data Sites With Statistical Data (Selected)

U.S. Government Web Sites
U.S. Government Web Sites These sites are listed in alphabetical order by agency keyword. (Example: look under "C" for U.S. Bureau of the Census.) Search hint: You may find your site easier if you click on the "Edit" pulldown menu, then on "Find". Type your search (example: Census), click on "Find next", then click on the link found. Please notify us if the link you need is not found, or needs to be updated.

FEDSTATS
Statistics from selected Federal Agencies (Includes Alphabetical Subject Index) Includes a search engine.

STAT-USA
This site is maintained by the U.S. Commerce Department, and is the site for the U.S. business, economic and trade community, providing authoritative information from the Federal government. There are several databases, including he National Trade Databank, and the Export Yellow Pages. Statistical information by subject.  Also provides economic news and data. (WWW - This resource is available only in the Honnold/Mudd Search Center. Licensing requires that a password be used, and can be obtained from Search Center staff).

Statistical Abstract of the United States
This link takes one directly to the Statistical Abstract of the United States online. The publication is the most comprehensive source of statistics in existence. Contains statistics on hundreds of subjects and has good source citations. Also has been published since 1898 and is a very good source for historical data. Organized and indexed by subject, with a comprehensive index to tables, search engine on this interface and tables cite sources for additional information. Paper edditions shelved as: Hon Ref US Sudoc C 3.134/-(1878-) Latest at Hon Ref Desk HA202.C4 Un3, or C 3.134/-.

International Organization Web Sites and Databases With Statistical Data

International Organizations
This page is created and maintained by The International Documents Task Force of The Government Documents Round Table of The American Library Association. It provides an alphabetical listing of International Governmental Organizations websites, many of which have online datanases and publications as well as online lists.

Eurostat:  Statistical Office of the European Communities
Collects data from the National Statistical Institutes of each of the 15 member states of the European Union.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Provides links to sources and actual data sets for the following categories and others: Agriculture, Demography, Development Co-operation, The Development Assistance Comittee Economic Accounts for Agriculture, Economic statistics, Education statistics. etc. The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges has a subscription to SourceOECD, which provides statistical information about the Organization for Eocnomic Cooperation and Development

World Development Indicators
Presents downloadable data providing a comprehensive statistical survey of indicators on world view, people, environment, economy, states and markets, and global links. Available only to users at the Claremont Colleges or connecting to a Claremont Colleges proxy server or modem pool. [Previous versions, 2001, 2001 and 2000, 2000, still available in the search centers of the Libraries only. Note: some 2000 version indicators are not available in the 2001 version.

California State Data Site

California Statistical Abstract
(WWW site) The California Statistical Abstract is a compilation of data on social, economic, and physical aspects of the state. The volume is cooperative effort of various state agencies to provide a source for a wide variety of data about the state. Published by the Department of Finance, Financial and Economic Research Unit. Tables site contributors, for additional data sources. Divided into subject categories comparable with paper editions for time series downloadable and printable.

Educational Demographics Office
The California State Department of Education has compiled and published extensive detailed educational demographics reports on their Web site. The data is based on the CBEDS (California Basic Educational Data System) data bank.

Finance Dept
This Web site includes:

  • Justice Dept.
    • Criminal Justice Statistics Center Contains criminal justice statistics online, such as Crime and Delinquency in California, Homicide in California, and Hate Crime in California.