Governmental bodies collect and distribute data related to a wide array of mandates. As you search for data sources, consider which levels of government (federal, state, local, international, governmental organizations) and which types of agencies (labor, health, education, transportation) may have a mandate to gather and/or disseminate relevant data.
If you're not sure where to start, try these resources:
- ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
- The ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States is a comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. This resource is a continuation of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, previously published by the U.S. Census Bureau.
- ProQuest Statistical Insight
- Search summaries of statistical publications from government agencies, then link to the full-text of selected publications on Statistical Insight and government websites. Statistical Insight combines American Statistics Index (U.S. Federal statistics), Statistical Reference Index (U.S. state governments and private organizations) and Index to International Statistics (international agencies).
- Data.gov
- The U.S. government's portal to open data allows users to easily find some of the latest data from many federal agencies.
- FedStats
- FedStats is a search portal for statistical content currently available on federal websites.
- DataFerrett
- This Java-based tool can be used to extract and analyze data from a variety of federal, state, and local sources.
- Statistical Abstract of the United States, Main Library Reference HA 202 .P76
- State Stats
- Includes data for the 50 states and the District of Columbia from both governmental and non-governmental sources.
- RAND California
- This resource includes some state-produced data and statistics, and a few local data resources are also available.
- FRASER
- The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides a substantial collection of economic and financial data.
- UNdata
- The data portal of the United Nations searches across a large number of IGO and NGO data resources.
- World Bank Open Data
- International economic indicators and data related to international development are freely available from the World Bank.
- OECD iLibrary
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development disseminates data and provides statistical reports focusing on OECD member countries but sometimes including other countries.
- OFFSTATS
- This directory lists international statistical agencies and can help with tracking down detailed data from a specific country.
- ICPSR
- A substantial number of government data sets are deposited in ICPSR.
