U.S. Government Publications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison : Statistics

Agriculture: Data and Statistics 

• By Steenbock Library
• Provides links to agricultural statistics for Wisconsin, the United States, and beyond

Health Data and Statistics 

• By Ebling Library
• Provides links to statistics on birth and death, particular disorders, diseases, population groups, health trends, hospital utilization, costs, and health related issues

National Center for Education Statistics 

• By MERIT Library
• Provides suggestions for use of the NCES website

Statistics on Women and Gender 

• By UW-Madison's Women's Studies Librarian
• Will help you find resources with statistics and data on women and gender

U.S. Census of Population and Housing Basics 

For the most part, the resources listed here contain statistical tables.  If you're interested in obtaining raw data sets from which you can then generate your own tabulations, see the "data" tab in this guide, or visit Research Data Services' page on Finding, Reusing, and Citing Data.    

For additional statistical resources, see the list of statistical databases on the UW-Madison's Libraries website.

AgingStats.gov 

• Maintained by the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics
• As of 2025, this site has two main types of statistics:
  • Inventory of COVID-19 Data and Information Resources
    • "All entries reflect a point-in-time inventory of available data and information resources as of December 1, 2022."
  • The book Older Americans: Key Indicators of Well-Being, last published in 2020.
    • Tables from 2020 and earlier editions available on the "Reports and Tables" page

Bureau of Economic Analysis 

• Statistics and data on U.S. economic accounts, on national, international, regional, and industry levels.

Bureau of Justice Statistics 

• Provides free public access to information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

• The principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.

Census Bureau 

• Free public access to U.S. demographic, trade, and business data and statistical reports. Best government web site for U.S. demographic data.

ChildStats.gov 

• From the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
• The Forum's main report is "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being," features statistics on children and families in the U.S. across a range of domains, including family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education and health
• The site links to editions of the book going back to 1997.  (Can get to these reports by selecting "Publications," then "Past Reports," then selecting a year on the right.)

Digest of Education Statistics 

• Summarizes information about American education from prekindergarten through graduate school
• Free public access is available from 1990-present
• Earlier editions are available in print at the UW-Madison libraries: 1975-2009 and 1963-1974 (title was "Digest of Educational Statistics").

Economic Indicators 

• From the Commerce Department
• Links to  "U.S. Economy at a Glance With BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) Data" and "Census Economic Indicators"

National Agricultural Statistics Service Data and Statistics 

• Provides free public access to reports prepared by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
• Reports cover various facets of U.S. agriculture, including production and supplies of food and fiber, prices paid and received by farmers, farm labor and wages, farm aspects of the industry
• This office now conducts the Census of Agriculture (conducted in years ending in "2" and "7")

National Center for Education Statistics

• "Since 1867, NCES has been the federal statistical agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data on the condition of U.S. education—from early childhood to adult education—to help improve student outcomes."

Sage Data 

• Available for use in campus libraries, or off-campus use by UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff
• Provides access to statistical information produced by U.S. federal agencies, states, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations
• Information available in tabular and graphical form; tables and graphs can be reformatted in a variety of ways
• Formerly known as "Data Planet Statistical Datasets" 

Social Explorer 

• Available for use in campus libraries, or off-campus use by UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff
• Generates reports and maps from population data from the U.S. Census, going back to 1790, and from the Religious Congregations and Membership Study
• Click "tables" on the left to generate numerical tables
• UW-Madison license is for three simultaneous users 

Statistical Abstract of the United States 

• Free public access is available to 1878-2012 editions
• Editions from 2013 and later are available in campus libraries or off-campus to current UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff
• Publication summarizing statistics on the social, cultural, political, and economic organization of the United State
• Includes a selection of statistics from many statistical publications, both government and private

Tax Statistics 

• From the Internal Revenue Service
• Business tax, individual tax, and charitable/tax-exempt organization statistics

TRANSTATS: The Intermodal Transportation Database 

• Database provided by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
• Offers access to a range of transportation data by subject or mode of transport

USAspending.gov 

• Presents data about the various types of contracts, grants, loans, and other types of spending by the federal government

As part of the Federal Depository Library Program, the UW-Madison Libraries make U.S. government publications available to the public at no fee.

How are statistics and data different? The following comparison comes from a presentation by Mike McCaffrey, lecturer at the Faculty of Information of the University of Toronto.

Data

• “Disaggregated” collection of observations with one or more characteristics
• Generally require manipulation or extraction using utilities
• Can be values or observations of characteristics “numerically coded”
• Raw material for statistics

Statistics

• “Aggregated” and tabulated or cross-tabulated tallies based on data
• Counts, tallies, totals, “averages”
• Can be found in print or electronically
• Normally used as they are presented or retrieved
• “Facts numerically represented”

From: McCaffrey, Mike. “International Statistics: Helping Library Users Understand the Global Community.” Presentation at the American Library Association’s Government Information Round Table Pre-Conference, International Statistics: Helping Library Users Understand the Global Community, Chicago, IL, June 28, 2013.