Research Guides: Search for Statistical Sources: Overview

Recommended Resources

Statista This link opens in a new window
Statistics & studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, etc
View the Finding Data tutorial for more insights.
Sage Data This link opens in a new window
Statistical data for the social sciences
SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new window
U.S. mapping & data visualization application
To create an account, click on "create an account" and enter your SMU e-mail address and a password. Also, only 5 users can use this resource concurrently. Please log out when done using this resource.

U.S. Government Data and Statistics Portal
A portal to data covering these topics: General Government, Business and Economics, Defense and International Relations, Environment, Energy, and Agriculture, Family, Home, and Community, Geospatial Data, Health and Nutrition, Jobs and Education, Public Safety and Law, Science and Technology, Travel, Transportation, and Recreation

Find statistics on the web by adding "data" or "statistics" or "government" to your keyword search.

Ask yourself who would be most likely to generate a statistic on the desired topic. Consider these likely places. Be sure to consider possible bias.

Who collected and published the statistics? What are their credentials?
What data or statistics are being reported? What populations are included?
Is the information contemporary to your topic?
Why was the information collected? Was it collected to understand, to persuade, to sell a product?
Can you find the original data source from which the statistics were created? Do the statistics looks accurate based on the data? If it was a survey, can you read the survey questions?