U.S. Federal Government Data & Statistics

Welcome to the U.S. Federal Government Statistics & Data Resource Guide! This guide is designed to help you navigate and access a wealth of data and statistical resources provided by various U.S. federal government agencies, while featuring research tips, tools, and tutorials. Whether you're a student, faculty member, or a public patron interested in understanding the numbers behind the news, this guide is your starting point for finding reliable and authoritative government data.

Data are observations or measurements (unprocessed or processed) represented as text, numbers, or multimedia, collected to be examined and considered and used to help decision-making, or information in an electronic form that can be stored and used by a computer.

A dataset is a structured collection of data generally associated with a unique body of work.

A database is an organized collection of data stored as multiple datasets. Those datasets are generally stored and accessed electronically from a computer system that allows the data to be easily accessed, manipulated, and updated.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Data

Quantitative Data are data represented numerically, including anything that can be counted, measured, or given a numerical value. Quantitative data can be classified in different ways, including categorical data that contain categories or groups (like countries), discrete data that can be counted in whole numbers (like the number of students in a class), and continuous data that is a value in a range (like height or temperature). Quantitative data are typically analyzed with statistics.

Qualitative Data are data representing information and concepts that are not represented by numbers. They are often gathered from interviews and focus groups, personal diaries and lab notebooks, maps, photographs, and other printed materials or observations.

Statistics are evidence, the information we find in data. The Evidence Act (via CIPSEA) defines evidence as "information produced as a result of statistical activities conducted for a statistical purpose." It is not the data itself, but depends on data. We evaluate the statistics and evidence against our goals to determine performance, including the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of our work.

1. Define your topic

• Be specific about your topic so that you can narrow your search, but be flexible enough to tailor your needs to existing sources.
• What is your time frame and geography?

2. Think about who might collect the data

• Could it have been collected by a government agency?
• A nonprofit/nongovernmental organization?
• A private business or industry group?
• Academic researchers?

3. Look for publications that cite the dataset

• i.e. scholarly articles or government reports