Subject Guides: Data and Statistics: Finding and Citing

Data is factual information used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation. It can be either quantitative or qualitative and can be represented in a variety of forms such as graphs, tables, or charts. Statistics are numerical data that has been organized and interpreted.

Data/Statistics can be found in a variety of sources including databases, websites, and print publications. Below are some commonly used sources to find data in a variety of disciplines.

For more subject-specific data sources, consult the applicable subject guide.

Websites and Online Databases

ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States
Call Number: Online and at the reference desk
ISBN: 9781598885910
Authoritative and comprehensive compendium of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States.

Statista This link opens in a new window
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
Sage Data This link opens in a new window Provides access to statistical information produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations.

Data Citation Index
Part of Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, Data Citation Index provides access to research data from repositories across disciplines and around the world. Through linked content and summary information, this data is displayed within the broader context of the scholarly research, enabling users to gain perspective that is lost when data sets or repositories are viewed in isolation. These connections allow researchers to access an array of data across subjects and regions.
Data.gov
Search for government data from across the U.S. Federal Government.
• Enter keywords in the search box.
• Browse on the left side through types, tags, formats, groups, organization types, organizations, and categories. Clicking on multiple items narrows your search. You can click on the “x” to the side of any single item to remove it from the search, or “clear all” to remove all selected items in a category.
• Search by geospatial area by drawing a boundary box on the map at the left side and clicking “Apply” to find all datasets that are tagged for that geographic area.
Explore Census Data
Statistical data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau include population, housing, economic and geographic information.
Census Reporter
Feeling overwhelmed by the official Census website? Consider trying Census Reported. Census Reporter is an independent project of the Northwestern University to make it easier for journalists to write stories using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

ICPSR This link opens in a new window
The Web site provides quick and easy access, with efficient search and browse capabilities, to the world's largest archive of more than 28 digital datasets in social sciences and related areas. The site also provides information about ICPSR and its services and programs, as well as other related resources and instructional documentation.

UNdata
A global statistical database, covering all United Nations countries and areas.
CDC data
Get access to data through searching, browsing, or by theme.
Our World in Data
Our World in Data is a collaborative project between researchers at the University of Oxford, who are the scientific editors of the website content; and the non-profit organization Global Change Data Lab, who publishes and maintains the website and the data tools.

Citing Statistics

When referencing a statistic within a paper/project, cite its source following the applicable style manual.

Example 1

For example if referencing a statistic from an article, cite the article according to convention.

In-Text Citation

"Overall, private-label foods and beverages have crept up to a 20.6 percent share of grocery dollars from 18.7 percent before the pandemic, according to the market research firm Circana." (Creswell, 2023, para. 6).

Reference Citation

Creswell, J. (2023, October 17). Those Doritos too expensive? More stores offer their own alternatives. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/business/private-label-food-groceries.html

Example 2

For example if referencing a statistic from a table, cite the table according to convention.

In-Text Citation

In 2023, Lay's had more than double the sales of any other potato chip brand in the United States (Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, 2023).

Reference Citation

Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery. (2023, July 27). Sales of the leading potato chip brands of the United States in 2023 (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/188222/top-potato-chip-brands-in-the-united-states/

Purdue Owl - Writing with Statistics

Citing Data

Data requires citations for the same reasons journal articles and other types of publications require citations: to acknowledge the original author/producer and to help other researchers find the resource.

A dataset citation includes all of the same components as any other citation:

author,
title,
year of publication,
publisher (for data this is often the archive where it is housed),
edition or version, and
access information (a URL or other persistent identifier).

Unfortunately, standards for the citation of data are not uniformly agreed upon and have yet to be codified by the National Information Standards Organization (an organization that sets technical standards for other bibliographic materials). However, many data providers and distributors and some style manuals do provide guidelines. Be sure to follow the general citation format for the style manual your professor has asked you to use. It is always better to provide more information about a resource rather than less!

Example in APA 7th:

Milberger, S. (2002). Evaluation of violence against women with physical disabilities in Michigan, 2000-2001 (ICPSR 3414, Version V1) [Data set]. ICPSR. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03414

Lucy Scribner Library

Data and Statistics: Finding and Citing