Guides: Evaluating Statistics: General (United States)

U.S. Statistical Sources

United States Census Bureau
A wealth of historical and current population, health, business, education statistics and more. For historical census data, begin at the History page and explore.
Data.gov
Search all open U.S. government datasets by keyword, browse by topic and topic categories from the left menu, or use the map to search for datasets for a particular area or location.
DataLumos
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research archive for valuable government data resources.
End of [Presidential] Term Web Archive
"... captures and saves U.S. Government websites at the end of presidential administrations. Beginning in 2008, the EOT has thus far preserved websites from administration changes in 2008, 2012 and 2016."
Federal Government and Statistical Agencies
From the National Center for Educational Statistics, a list of other government agencies that collect statistics.
General Social Survey (GSS)
Funded by the National Science Foundation, this survey is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in even years to provide a non-biased view of public opinion on a variety of policy issues and public confidence in U.S. institutions.
Pew Research Center
Publishes surveys on many current issues and social trends, including impact of media and advertising. Browse their index or search.
USA.gov
Start here to search for statistics from the United States government agencies and state government websites. You can also easily browse by topic or services.

Texas.gov
Portal to Texas state information. Use the Find It link to the right of the screen to browse or search for specific agencies.
Texas Almanac (Texas State Historical Association)
Explore "everything Texas" in the current edition or download any edition from 1857 to the present; includes geography, environment, climate, elections, history and more.
Texas Open Data Portal
This central data hub is under development. Future plans include adding more data from various Texas departments.

Kinder HCDC Dashboard (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University)
Houston community profile data collected since 1981. Start with the dashboard and explore other databases, compare the same community over time, or compare different communities.
Kinder Houston Area Survey (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University)
Since 1981, the Kinder Institute has been conducing social attitude surveys. Explore the Issues and Research tabs at the top of the page for data on specific issues.

Monthly Bulletin of Statistics Online (MBS; United Nations)
An easy to use table to discover statistics on population, trade, energy, and employment for United Nations member countries.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
UNdata (United Nations)
Searchable database brings together 32 databases with data on population, labor, energy, economics, and more for United Nations member countries.
World Factbook (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency)
Find the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
Gapminder: Data (Gapminder Foundation)
Gapminder brings together data gathered from international sources on health, the environment, infrastructure and employment. Search for international statistics on a variety of indicators. Go to the Tools menu to see bubble charts on selected indicators, then How to Use to see help videos and get a link to download the free software for making your own visualizations. "GapMinder [Foundation] is an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious, or economic affiliations."
IPUMS-I (Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation)
Census and survey data for 98 countries as of July 2020; some data is available for as far back as the 1960s. Register to create a free account that will allow you to download specific data based on criteria you set and use it in other applications.
World Bank Open Data
Explore data sets, micro data or geospatial data by country or by type. Scroll down to see what countries are included.

United States Census

Explore Census Data
The latest platform for delivering interactive census data.
Historical Census Data For the U.S.
Data from 1790, when the housing and population census began.
Statistical Abstracts Series (U.S. Department of the Census)
Published from 1890 to 2012, the Statistical Abstract brought together basic statistics complied from a range of U.S. agencies. Find updates and, often, more detailed statistics, by referring to the specific source listed below each table. Scroll down the page to find special supplements, including Historical Statistics of the United States from 1610 to 1970.
U.S. Census Data Academy
Videos include brief quick start tips, longer webinars, both archived and upcoming announcements) and courses in finding and using census data. Also find one page help sheets and visualizations under Resources.