50 REFERENCE SOURCES
general statistical sources
In the chapter on government documents and statistics sources in Reference
and Information Services: An Introduction, Eric Forte and Mary Mallory note that
“the Statistical Abstract of the United States is at once both an index to statistical
material and a source of statistics itself.”^1Statistical Abstract of the United States. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/.
If the question is about some current aspect of American life, there is
probably a government agency that has counted it in some fashion.
Once only a print source, the “Stat Abstract” was also available online.
Effective October 1, 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau terminated the col-
lection of data for the Statistical Compendium program, of which the
Statistical Abstract was a part. Starting in 2013 ProQuest will publish
the Statistical Abstract in print (with Bernan Press) and digital formats.
FedStats. http://www.fedstats.gov. Produced by the Federal Interagency
Council on Statistics, this is a comprehensive index to the web ver-
sions of federal government statistical data collected by over 100
government agencies. It can be searched by topic, agency, or pro-
gram and also includes links to a wide variety of other governmen-
tal and statistical sites, including the statistical agencies of other
nations from Afghanistan to Zambia.
UNdata. http://data.un.org. Created by the Statistics Division of the
UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, this site offers
access to a variety of statistical databases compiled by agencies of
the United Nations. These are official statistics collected by member
nations and cover a number of concerns, among them agriculture,
education, health, population, refugees, and trade and tourism.Population statistics
U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov. Demographic data collected by the
U.S. Census Bureau with numerous links to other national and inter-
national statistical sites and many other online tools are offered at this
site. It also features a population clock tracking our national numbers.
American FactFinder. http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/
index.xhtml. This is the portion of the census website to go to forhttp://www.ebook3000.com