This guide identifies key sources for locating statistics. Several of the sources focus on statistics about crime, corrections, prisons, the criminal justice system, and more. The other statistical sources (including the U.S. Census Bureau) provide population, demographic, economic, educational and other data.
Click below for our Statistical Sources Everyone Should Know handout.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
BJS reports are available online in addition to being in print. Statistics are maintained in a wide range of areas such as law enforcement, courts and sentencing, corrections, capital punishment, various crimes such as bias motivated/hate crime and human trafficking, recidivism and reentry and much more.
Campus Safety and Security Data
Reported statistics on campus crime, safety and security for over 6000 postsecondary education institutions in the United States from the US Department of Education.
Civilian Complaint Review Board
The CCRB has provides links to their various statistical reports and other data including Monthly Statistical Reports and Annual and Bi-Annual Reports.
Crime Data Reporter The FBI's tool to discover available Uniform Crime Report data through visualizations, graphs and interactive maps. Download data in .csv format as well as other large data files. See the FBI's Uniform Crime Report website for more traditional data reporting.
CrimeSolutions.gov A National Institute of Justice site with research which rates the effectiveness of criminal justice programs and practices for practitioners and policy makers intended to figure out what works, what doesn't, and what's promising in criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services.
Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center (FJSRC)
The FJSRC of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) compiles comprehensive information on suspects and defendants who have been processed in the federal criminal justice system violating federal law. Users can generate and analyze chosen statistics in the areas of federal law enforcement, prosecution/courts, and incarceration from 1998 to 2021 and title and section of the U.S. Criminal Code from 1994 to 2021.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
Holds over 550 data collections relating to criminal justice. This website provides browsing and downloading access to most of this data and documentation, as well as an on-line Data Analysis System for some of the studies.
New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
State, regional and county wide criminal justice statistics for New York state. Data is broken down into broad categories: reported crime and victimization, adult criminal justice system, youth justice system, and law enforcement.
NYPD Crime Statistics and the NYPD CompStat 2.0 (interactive)
New York City Police Department Crime Statistics are available citywide, by borough, or by precinct (pdf files).
Open New York (Public Safety) Open NY provides New York state, local and federal statistics on crime, corrections, law enforcement, public safety and more.
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
Updated regularly to reflect the latest U.S. government statistics broken down by Criminal Justice Characteristics, Public Opinion, Crime and Victims, Arrests and Seizures, Courts, Prosecution and Sentencing, and Parole, Jails, Prisons, Death Penalty
TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse)
Syracuse University's "comprehensive, independent and non-partisan information about federal enforcement, staffing and spending" from different government agencies such as Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration to name a few. Reports and statistics include very detailed information from the U.S. government that is checked for accuracy and completeness and made available to the public.
Uniform Crime Reports
Data from the federal government's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program providing statistics for law enforcement, students of criminal justice, researchers, the media, and the public. The program has been providing crime statistics since 1930. Some reports of interest include: Hate Crime Statistics, The National Use-of-Force Data Collection and Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection. See the FBI's Crime Data Reporter to discover this data through visualizations, graphs and interactive maps. The current print version is available at the Reference Desk under the title Crime in the United States.
Finding statistics can be tricky. You may not find the data compiled exactly the way you want it. Be creative. Use, analyze and work with the statistics you find.
Be mindful of:
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Data.gov A repository of data collections from hundreds of organizations including Federal agencies. Data.gov is the home of the U.S. Government’s open data. You can find Federal, state and local data, tools, and resources to conduct research, build apps, design data visualizations, and more. |
| European Social Survey |
| An academically-driven social survey designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behavior patterns of its diverse populations. |
| International Data Base (IDB) |
| The International Data Base (IDB) is a computerized databank containing statistical tables of demographic and socioeconomic data for all countries of the world. Create your own tables. |
| My Neighborhood Statistics |
| Lets New York City residents know how City agencies are performing in their neighborhood by viewing locally mapped performance statistics using a street address or intersection. Color-shaded maps also allow for easy comparisons of highs and lows in different neighborhoods. |
| Nation Master |
| Specializes in ranking countries of the world on the basis of a specific statistic within broad statistical categories. For example within the category of crime there is a ranking of countries by number of jails per capita. The statistics are gathered from sources published by the UN, the CIA World Factbook, the World Bank and other authoritative sources. Use the Encyclopedia link on the top right to see the statistics available by category. Caution: Since we are not a sponsor of the site, you will not be able to use the option for making your own graphs based on selected countries and categories. If you click on the name of a country in a ranking list, you will be given a statistical profile of that country. However, statistical profiles in the CIA World Factbook are more current. |
| National Association on Counties |
| News, economic and demographic data, county ordinances, policies, and more. Browse by state or search. Includes surveys of United States counties in relation to finances and homeland security. |
| National Center for Health Statistics |
| Includes FASTATS which are statistics that can be retrieved quickly on health subjects from AIDS to Work-loss days (includes supporting documents as well as statistics). |
| National Criminal Justice Reference System: Corrections |
| The NCJRS provides a wealth of online publications (sorted by topic or date) and links to a multitude of Internet resources (by topic subdivisions). A must-see site for the state of corrections in the United States. |
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National Data Book: State and Local Areas The State and Local Area Web site allows online access to the data provided by the Statistical Abstract supplement publications, State and Metropolitan Area Data Book and County and City Data Book.
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| New York City Department of City Planning - Reference |
| The Department of City Planning provides a Census Factfinder with information available by census tract or community district and Profiles of the 59 community districts. Among the reports here is New York: A City of Neighborhoods, which offers maps of neighborhood names and community district boundaries along with geographic, demographic and economic statistics. Demographic information for community districts for 2000 and 2010 is here. |
| New York City Documents |
| Columbia University's Document Service Center presents a selective guide to official documents by and about New York City and its agencies. Some documents of interest include Archives of the 107th Mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Community District Profiles, Weekly Crime Statistics, Rent Guidelines, and numerous reports on Rebuilding Downtown New York City. A section on New York City Statistics provides links to a multitude of statistics on NYC. |
| New York State Statistics |
| The New York State Statistics website, presented by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, provides extensive statistical information on the demographics, economics, elections, government finance, public safety, housing, education, health, energy. |
| NYCdata |
| A compendium of data, primarily statistical about New York City, drawn from various governmental sources, with links to the sources. |
| Official City Sites |
| State, city, and county links for the United States (Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and New Zealand, too). Includes census information, city maps, chambers of commerce, and convention and visitor bureaus. |
| Social Explorer |
| Based at Queens College, Social Explorer is dedicated to providing easy access to demographic information for United States. It has hundreds of interactive data maps of the United States, including historical data back to 1940 and can be used to visualize changes in distribution of people by income, race, education, etc. |
| State and County QuickFacts |
| Census 2000 data by state and county. USA QuickFacts as well. |
| State of the Cities Data Systems |
| This site from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides economic, demographic, crime, building and government finance data for individual metropolitan areas, central cities, and suburbs. |
| Stateline.org |
| Operated by the Pew Center on the States, a research organization administered by the University of Richmond. State government and public management issues such as budget, taxes, crime and prisons, environment, income and poverty, insurance, population, campaign finance, education, healthcare and transportation. Special features include state of the state speeches and state comparison charts. |
| Statistical Abstract of the United States |
| This site provides access to the premier U.S. government statistical source as well as quick links to the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, USA Counties, and County and City Data Book; as well as Map Stats, a site that provides quick access to facts about particular states and counties. See this guide for additional information on using this resource. |
| Statistical Resources on the Web |
| University of Michigan Documents Center presents sources of statistics on a wide range of topics. |
| U.S. Census Bureau |
| Comprehensive site for current and historical U.S. demographic data. Browse by topic or use American FactFinder or State & County Quick Facts to access data. Links to federal, state, and international statistical resources as well. |
| U.S. Census Bureau: Federal State and Local Governments |
| Census Bureau data on local, state and federal agencies and activities. Includes government organization, public employment and payroll, finance, public employmee retirement systems, tax collections, federal expenditures, and public school systems. |
| U.S. Courts |
| The official site of the Federal Judiciary. Some hightlights include a Library with Federal Judiciary publications and statistics, Federal rules of practice, procedure and evidence for all federal courts, and Understanding the Federal Courts, an introductory textbook on the federal judicial system, its organization, and relationship to the legislative and executive branches of the government. |
| UNESCO Institute for Statistics |
| This site maintains global and internationally comparable statistics on education, science, technology, culture and communication. Particularly useful are the the Statistical Tables on education, culture, and science. |
| United Nations - Statistics |
| Web pages from the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs provide Statistics and economic indicators concerning men and women in countries around the world. Statistics focus on general topics of population, families, education, health,work, and political participation. The latest data is provided, but it may be a few years old. |
| University of Michigan Documents Center |
| A central reference and referral point for government information--local, state, federal, foreign or international. Includes government, political science, statistical data, and news. |