To help you find statistics quickly, this article lists down seven trustworthy sources to access updated statistics on various topics.
1. Statista
From oil prices in 1960 to the most played PC games, you can find statistics about anything under the sun on Statista. Its extensive database contains statistics covering over 170 industries and 150 countries.
Statista doesn’t do the research itself, but lets its data partners publish statistics on its platform. Apart from statistics, it also publishes forecasts, infographics, surveys, dossiers, market outlooks, and reports. Reputable studies and reports often link to Statista.
To find the best-suited results, you can sort the results by relevance and preferred location. Statista allows you to download the data in different formats, including XLS and PPT. You can directly cite the statistics, adjust data points of charts, and print out the information.
Although Statista offers a free plan, it only lets you access limited data. So if you’re serious about getting reliable, updated facts and figures, it’s worth subscribing to the paid plan.
2. Gallup
Gallup is a Washington-based analytics company that collects information itself. It then publishes insights in the form of articles and podcasts.
It runs surveys and publishes public opinion data covering more than 160 countries. From politics and business to society and education, Gallup provides first-hand statistics for a wide range of topics.
The Gallup Blog breaks down raw data as easy-to-digest articles that you can cite and share. In its podcast, Gallup brings thought leaders from different industries to share their opinions. Through Gallup Vault, you can learn about public opinion during crucial historical events.
A significant amount of data on the Gallup website is free and publicly accessible. But you’ll have to subscribe to Gallup Analytics to access datasets for analysis and comparison.
3. Pew Research
Pew Research is a widely known and trusted data platform that describes itself as a nonpartisan fact tank. Like Gallup, Pew Research conducts polls and surveys and publishes first-hand information. Though it focuses mainly on politics, demographics, trends, and social issues, you can find statistics on other topics, too.
Pew Research’s website has several tools and resources for finding and analyzing data. It allows you to download datasets of its surveys for secondary analysis. Through its Survey Question Search feature, you can find results of various public polls conducted since 1989. Moreover, you can read short, fact-based articles about various topics on the Short Reads page.
For publications and press, Pew Research is the go-to source for finding data and statistics.
4. Data.gov
Developed to ensure transparency, Data.gov is a project of the US federal government that publishes open data. Under this project, federal agencies make their data accessible to the public, keeping privacy and security in the mind, of course.
Since it’s a governmental website, you can find statistics on demographics, economy, social issues, and developmental indicators. Data.gov has several data tools that allow you to evaluate and analyze statistics. Furthermore, there are resources for skills development, case studies, and data competitions.
To find statistics, enter the keyword in the search bar to search its data catalog. You can then filter the results according to location (within the US), tags, format, dataset types, publishers, bureaus, and more.
If you’re looking for the latest information, order the results by Date Added.
5. UN Statistical Division
The United Nations has its own statistical division that collects information from multiple sources and makes it publicly accessible. Its focus is to publish demographic data of its member countries. On the website, you can find statistics on the economy, environment, sustainable development goals, and social issues.
Apart from publishing data, the UN Statistical Division sets standards for statistical activities and helps its members improve their statistical departments.
You can also visit the UN Data website to search statistics from 32 databases and 60 million records. Its advanced search tool lets you discover statistics from specific countries, regions, dates, and topics.
The UN Statistical Division is perhaps the most trusted source for demographic statistics.
6. Google Public Data Explorer
Google’s Public Data Explorer does exactly what it says on the tin–lets you explore publicly available information. It compiles statistics from various sources, including the World Bank, University of Denver, US Census Bureau, and more.
The tool gives you an option to choose between metrics and datasets. What’s more, the best part about Public Data Explorer is that it lets you create data visualizations in the form of interactive line, bar, bubble, and map charts. You can also upload your dataset to this tool for creating visualizations.
If you can’t find the relevant statistics here, you can also use Google Dataset Search. It works the same as a regular Google search, but the results include statistics only. A single search shows statistics from multiple sources, including the ones discussed above. This way, you don’t have to search each website individually.
Google being the largest search engine, you can expect the data here to be updated and reliable.
7. Knoema
Knoema is a compelling open data platform for discovering, managing, and visualizing data. It collects statistics from hundreds of trusted sources, mainly government agencies, UN departments, and NGOs.
Knoema covers politics, economy, transportation, education, crime, energy, environment, demographics, and more. You can also find country rankings based on different indicators, like GDP per capita.
Apart from raw data, Knoema publishes data visualizations and articles on its Insights blog. On the DataBulletin page, you can find complete datasets for further analysis.
Knoema has three plans: free, professional, and enterprise. In most cases, the free plan will suffice as it lets you access a gigantic database through intelligent search tools.
Convert Data Into Digestible Form
With these websites, you can quickly find statistics on any topic and back your opinion on facts. Although hard data is useful for research and analysis, it’s difficult to understand for most people.
Therefore, if you want to use statistics in presentations, articles, or reports, it’s always a good idea to visualize your data so that it is easier to understand.
