The Statistical Abstract of the United States was an annual publication produced by the U.S. Census Bureau.  In 2012 it ceased publication, but is now published by ProQuest. It provides a wealth of information, namely by leading you to other statistical sources.  At the bottom of each statistical table in the Statistical Abstract, you will find a reference the original source of these statistics. By consulting the original source, you will most likely find additional statistical information on that topic. 

When looking for statistical information, we should adopt a similar strategy to the one we used when searching for information on the Web: we should ask ourselves, “Who would collect this information?”

For example, if we were looking for statistics on how many people were put to death in the United States last year under the death penalty, where might we look? 

First, we should ask ourselves, “Who is involved in this activity?” Well, “state governments” would be a start, as the death penalty is administered at the state level. But we don’t want to check every state. 

“Who might keep track of the country as a whole?” might be our next question. “The federal government,” would be a correct answer. Next, we would want to know “what part of the federal government? Is there an agency associated with law enforcement?” The answer to this would be the Department of Justice, and, more specifically, the Bureau of Justice Statistics. While we might not know about this agency off the top of our heads, as long as we’re thinking along the right track, it’s not too difficult to find out the name of the agency. 

Another possibility for finding this statistic would be an organization either in support or opposed to the death penalty. They would be sure to have the statistics, although we would want to watch for possible manipulation in how they reported or used them. To identify such an organization, we would use a source like the Encyclopedia of Associations. 

Finally, we might be able to find up-to-date statistics in a newspaper or magazine article about the death penalty.


Quick Search Strategies for Statistics!

• Use the URI Libraries Search. Search by Subject and add the subdivision, statistics (e.g. women statistics).
• Use a periodical index. Search the index by subject (e.g. breast cancer statistics).
• Use an index to statistical sources (e.g. American Statistics Index)
• Use the World Wide Web
• Use a guide or bibliography of suggested resources.