Statistics Sources Everyone Should Know (PDF)
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 sources (including the U.S. Census Bureau) provide general and geographic statistics on population, economy, education, etc.
Bureau of Justice Statistics |
The BJS publishes most of its reports on its WWW pages as well as in print. Statistics are maintained in the areas of law enforcement, prosecution, courts and sentencing, corrections (including capital punishment), and expenditure and employment. |
Campus Security Data Cutting Tool |
Reported statistics on campus crimes at over 6000 postsecondary education institutions in the United States. From the US Office of Postsecondary Education. |
Civilian Complaint Review Board |
The CCRB has a web page with an online complaint form and links to their status reports and monthly statistical reports. |
College and Universities Crime Statisics |
Provides campus crime statistics for colleges and universities across the United States, including searches of the Dept. of Education database, and links to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports statistics for over 400 colleges. |
Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center (FJSRC) |
The FJSRC maintains the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP) database, which contains information about suspects and defendants processed in the Federal criminal justice system. |
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) |
The FRED database contains economic data including interest rates, producer price indexes, GDP, consumer price indices, and many other number series reflecting the U.S. economy. |
Fedstats |
The "gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies," allows you to browse or search for thousands of statistical tables maintained by the U.S. government. |
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 |
Included on the Division's Web site are criminal justice statistics for New York state as well as a Directory of New York State Criminal Justice Agencies. |
NYPD Crime Statistics and the NYC Crime Map |
New York City Police Department Crime Statistics are available citywide, by borough, or by precinct (pdf files). |
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics |
Updated regularly to reflect the latest U.S. government statistics. |
TRAC Immigration |
Attempts to discover very detailed information from the U.S. government, check it for accuracy and completeness and then make it available in an understandable way; includes special reports from TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) at Syracuse University, one-click access to the very latest monthly data on the criminal enforcement of the immigration laws, an extensive library of reports on immigration matters by the GAO, CRS and inspectors general; and a plain English glossary of frequently used words and acronyms common to the immigration world. |
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. |
Uniform Crime Reports |
"The UCR program is a nationwide cooperative statistical effort ... of.. agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes" administered by the FBI. (the print format version is kept at the Reference Desk, with the title Crime in the United States). |
Bureau of Justice Statistics |
The BJS publishes most of its reports on its WWW pages as well as in print. Statistics are maintained in the areas of law enforcement, prosecution, courts, corrections (including capital punishment), and employment and expenditure. |
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 behaviour patterns of its diverse populations. |
Fedstats |
The "gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies," allows you to browse or search for thousands of statistical tables maintained by the U.S. government. |
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 authorative 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 docuemnts 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. |
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. |
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 Collge, 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 dities, 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. |