When hunting for statistical information, here are some guidelines:
Start with a published compendium. These will provide tables of basic information and their text will provide context, definitions, and background. A good compendium should point to its sources where you can find more detailed information. Government agencies are often the best sources of information.
Then look for published statistics tables if you can't find information in a compendium or if it doesn't point you to a more detailed source. These usually appear on a government agency's website, under "Data" or "Statistics" headings. The most current numbers often appear in a government agency's press releases, "fast stats", or briefs. Note : Stand-alone tables often provide numbers with no explanation or context.
Then turn to interactive databases if you find that published statistical tables do not give you the detailed information you need. These will require you to make selections among variables. Always look for documentation or "Help" pages to understand definitions and data limitations.
And last, turn to microdata if you cannot find the detail you need. These are very large datasets containing individual responses (survey questionnaires, administrative filings). Using these may require statistical software, or they may permit you to build frequency tables and crosstabulations by selecting variables, but they will always require your decisions in constructing output, sometimes including how to weight variables for sample error or for projecting for whole populations.
Demographics (sex, age, race), social and economic characteristics (including poverty, income, and education), and detailed housing characteristics for the United States and smaller US geographies from the Decennial Census, American Community Survey, and other data sources.
These advanced tools provide interfaces to extract groups of records from large datasets or to construct frequency tables or crosstabulations from selected variables.
