Statistics

Finding
Statistics

This and other research guides are on the ACC Library web page,
http://library.sunyacc.edu, under Research Guides & Tutorials.

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Find statistics by browsing through the books, article databases and Web sites below.

When you find useful statistics in a reference book, check if more updated information is available. Just look for the organization or agency which is the source of a statistic, often listed at the bottom of the statistical table. Then, check the organization's Web site. A great deal of U.S. government information is available on the FedStats Web site, mentioned below.

Make sure to consult ACC Library's many other research guides on specific subjects for more statistics.

Reference Books:

These books offer statistics on almost every imaginable subject. Notice that the Library of Congress call number for general statistics is "HA".

Statistical Abstract of the United States	REFERENCE HA 202 .A38 (annual)
County and City Extra	REFERENCE HA 203 .C68 (annual)
New York State Statistical Yearbook	REFERENCE HA 541 .N489 (annual)
Statesman’s year-book (statistics on countries of the world)	REFERENCE JA 51 .S7 (annual)
Historical statistics of the United States: Earliest times to the present	REFERENCE HA 202 .H57 2006
World Almanac and Book of Facts	REFERENCE AY 67 .N5 W7 (annual)

Web sites:

These sites are suitable for college-level research:

Fedstats http://www.fedstats.gov
Statistics from 100 federal agencies. Use "MapStats" link to go to geographic area's statistics (Warren County income, for instance.) Use "Agencies by Subject" to find statistics for labor/time use/income (Bureau of Labor Statistics), education, crime, health and many other subjects. Also, try A-Z index.

U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/
Current demographic, economic data, more; included in FedStats.

N.Y.S. Library: Government Information http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/citizens.htm
Links to laws, N.Y.S. government sites; information locator.

Consumer Expenditure Survey http://www.bls.gov/cex/
Show how much Americans spend on specific types of consumer goods. Browse down page for most recent Consumer Expenditure Reports, or comparisons by region. From Bureau of Labor Statistics & Census Bureau.

Statistical Resources on the Web http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html
Web sites with statistics on social sciences, business, science, health, demographics and more. Covers local, state, national, international statistics. From University of Michigan Documents Center.

Univ. at Albany Libraries's Research Guides http://library.albany.edu/subject/
Links to research guides on many topics; sites often include statistics links.

United Nations Statistics Division http://unstats.un.org/unsd
Demographics, economics, environmental statistics; also links to National Statistical Offices of countries around the world.

GapMinder http://www.gapminder.org/
Gapminder is "a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels." It has interactive graphs, lectures, and stats on poverty, health, and other trends in human development that can be customized to a country. Google took it over in 2007 and is making improvements to the software.

Polling Report http://pollingreport.com/
Shows American opinions from a variety of surveys.

Guide to Public Opinion Poll Web Sites http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2006/october06/opinionpoll.htm
Online article from College & Research Libraries News, with dozens of links to opinion polls.

Librarians' Internet Index http://lii.org
For more Web sites on small business, use this Web subject directory. Type in "Statistics" or your subject.

More Reference Books:

These reference books focus on a narrower subject than the books above. These are just a sampling of the books available in the ACC Library. You may also search the online catalog or article databases overlapping the word statistics with a subject: statistics and education, for example.

Business Statistics of the United States: REFERENCE HC 101 .A13 (annual)

U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook: REFERENCE HC 106.82 .U54 2000

Harris New York Manufacturers Directory: REFERENCE HC 107.N7 N49 2005

Handbook of Labor Statistics: REFERENCE HD 8051 .H36 2006

American Salaries & Wages Survey: REFERENCE HD 4975 .A44 1999

County Business Patterns, New York: REFERENCE HC 107.N7 U517 2000

County Business Patterns, U.S.: REFERENCE HD 4973 .U5 1998

The almanac of American education, 2006: REFERENCE LB 2846 .A45 2006

Health care state rankings 2006 : health care in the 50 United States: REFERENCE RA 407.3 .H423 2006

America's top-rated cities : a statistical handbook: REFERENCE HA 214 .A43 2005

American incomes : demographics of who has money: REFERENCE HC 110.I5 A44 2005

Profiles of New York State: REFERENCE HT 123.5.N7 .P76

The state of the world's children, 2005. Childhood under threat: REFERENCE HQ 767.8 .S7 2004

The gay & lesbian atlas: REFERENCE HQ 76.3.U5 G355 2004

Business statistics on the web : find them fast-at little or no cost: REFERENCE HF 1016 .B47 2003

Household spending : who spends how much on what: REFERENCE HC 110.C6 A6 2003

World population ageing, 1950-2050: REFERENCE HQ 1061 .W673 2002

Facts about American immigration: REFERENCE JV 6465 .B73 2001

World population : a reference handbook: REFERENCE HB 871 .G47 2001

Portrait of health in the United States: REFERENCE RA 410.53 .P67 2001

The weather almanac: a reference guide to weather, climate, and related issues in the United States: REFERENCE QC 983 .R83 2001

Statistical handbook on racial groups in the United States: REFERENCE E 184.A1 H417 2000

Nuclear power reactors in the world: REFERENCE TK 9202 .N835 2000

Agricultural statistics 2000: REFERENCE S21.R44 A3 2000

Opinion polls:

For surveys of people's opinions, see these sources:

Gallup Poll (annual): REFERENCE HN 90 .P8 G32
This reference book series offers public opinion polls of Americans. Various volumes cover from 1935 to 2004.

American attitudes: what Americans think about the issues that shape their lives: REFERENCE HN 90.P8 A527 2005

WorldPublicOpinion.org: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/
From the Program on International Policy Attitudes. Site started in January 2006 "to provide a source of in-depth information and analysis on public opinion from around the world on international issues."

Circulating Books:

Here is a sampling of books you may borrow about statistics. Circulating books are located on the upper level of the library. You may borrow them with an ACC student ID card.

The tao of statistics: a path to understanding (with no math) : QA 276 .K253 2006

Statistics you can't trust: a friendly guide to clear thinking about statistics in everyday life: HA 29 .C36 1999

Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything: HB 74.P8 L479 2005

Statistical methods for health care research: RT 81.5 .M86 2005

Journals Articles with Statistics:

Journal articles offer current and specific information and research. For a full list of journals ACC Library receives, see the online Periodicals at ACC list or the Periodicals booklet in the ACC Library.

Article databases offer you an easy way to search for journal articles by subject. If the information is not full-text, check with a reference libarian to find out how to find the article though another database, print sources or interlibrary loan. Article databases are subscription-only products. ACC students and faculty may search these from home by following screen directions. To get your ACC student username and password, see Lookup Account and Password on the Student Portal page.

From the ACC Library Web page, go to Finding Articles . Then, choose either:
- General Databases to find articles on a current, popular or multidisciplinary topic; from newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals;
- Subject Databases to find specialized articles on one subject only, such as business, science, literature, nursing, etc.

Under General Databases, the Opposing Viewpoints and CQ Researcher databases often offer statistics for controversial issues in the news.

Some search suggestions:

1) Use the Boolean logic terms "and" to overlap two or more subjects: statistics and health, for example.

2) Truncate (use a wildcard ending for) your terms.The most common truncation symbol is the asterisk (*). Searching with the term statistic* will find articles with the terms statistics, statistical, statistic, etc.

Created 7/06; updated July 2008/JM