ENC 1101 - Gaspary: Finding Statistics

You probably already have some statistics from your CQ Researcher articles.  Did you notice where CQ Researcher got them? Most likely from a government source.  The government is a wonderful source for statistics and you can access most government statistical resources easily via the Internet - because... they basically belong to you.  They are produced with your tax dollars after all. Many are also available in print form and can be found in the Polk State College library as well as on the Internet.

The challenge is knowing where they are. Some Internet sources for statistics provided by the US government include:

• The US Census Bureau - http://www.census.gov/
• National Center for Educational Statistics - http://nces.ed.gov/
• USA.gov - https://www.usa.gov/statistics
• Bureau of Justice Statistics - https://www.bjs.gov/ 
• Bureau of Labor Statistics - https://stats.bls.gov/

If you are not sure where to find the stats that you need, try using a statistics directory: http://www.refdesk.com/factpop.html

You can always do a general Internet search for "statistics" and whatever your topic is, but you will have to carefully evaluate the sites.