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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
Search Strategies
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?
