General Sources - Guide to Government Statistics - Agencies and Websites - Research Guides at University of Arkansas Little Rock

General Information

An increasing number of government statistics are available on the Internet.The links on the following page are only a partial selection of the materials available, covering key areas of interest. Most government agencies will have one or more links to publications and/or statistics from their home page. Agency budgets and annual reports are another source of current statistics and recent years can be found on the agency website.

While the current editions of popular reports are being posted, very few agencies are providing historical data prior to the mid-1990's. In many cases, the Ottenheimer Library has older editions of these reports in paper. Please check the on-line catalog or shelves for specific holdings of particular titles. Suggested subject headings for searching the online catalog, are provided after each subdivision.

Broad Statistical Sources

Some government agencies produce reports which compile data from numerous agencies into one publication or database. Some of the sites below offer more than one year's worth of reports, offering the chance to compare numbers.

Budget of the United States of America
Issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Budget of the United States Government is a collection of documents that contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that have been issued throughout the fiscal year. Other related and supporting budget publications are included, which may vary from year to year.
Congressional Budget Office
CBO's mandate is to provide the Congress with objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on the wide array of programs covered by the federal budget; and The information and estimates required for the Congressional budget process.
Data.gov
Increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets. The data catalogs will continue to grow as datasets are added. This is not a searchabled database. This site allows users to download entire datasets that were created by federal agencies for research. It is not recommended as a tool for locating basic numbers or statistical tables.
Principal Statistical Agencies and Recognized Units
The Federal statistical system comprises over 125 agencies or units that engage in statistical activities. A substantial portion of our official statistics is produced by the 13 agencies that have statistical work as their principal mission.
StatsAmerica
Obtains thousands of data items from hundreds of data sets from dozens of federal and state sources, along with some commercial or private source data. While StatsAmerica adds value to these data through easy access and functionality, we acknowledge the direct agency source of the data on every table, profile or map.
USA.gov
As the U.S. government's official web portal, USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the web. Including the word "statistics" in a search will focus on results that include data tables or reports with graphs and charts.
USASpending.gov
A single searchable website which includes details for each Federal award. Prime award information shown on the website is provided by Federal agencies through four main source systems. The site receives and displays data pertaining to amounts awarded for federally sponsored projects during a given budget period, not actual cash disbursements made against each project.