Key Online Statistical Sources
The following websites provide various statistical data about Pacific islands.
- The American Religious Landscape in 2020Provides unprecedented county-level data on religious identity and diversity in the United States. Based on interviews with more than 500,000 respondents between 2013 and 2020, the census report reveals the shifting dynamics of American religious affiliation across geography, race and ethnicity, age, and political affiliation over the last decade. It provides the most detailed estimates of American religious affiliation since the U.S. Census Bureau last collected religious data in 1957.
- 2012 U.S. Statistical Abstract: ReligionThis online resource offers three documents relating to religion (all available in Excel or PDF): Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population, Religious Bodies–Selected Data, and Christian Church Adherents and Jewish Population, States.
- Berman Jewish DatabankThe Berman Jewish Databank is the central repository for social scientific studies of North American Jewry. Both national and community studies are archived at the Data Bank in order to guarantee their availability for future generations of students and researchers. The Data Bank's primary functions are to acquire, archive, and disseminate quantitative data sets and reports and to encourage utilization of the Data Bank archives.
- Pluralism Project at HarvardThis online resource provides their research reports and numerous other resources pertaining to the studies of the new religious diversity in the United States.
- Religion Data ResourcesFrom the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
- Report on International Religious Freedom (U.S. Department of State)The International Religious Freedom report is submitted to Congress annually by the Department of State. This report supplements the most recent Human Rights Reports by providing additional detailed information with respect to matters involving international religious freedom. It includes individual country chapters on the status of religious freedom.
- U.S Religious Landscape SurveyFrom the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life.
Additional Online Statistical Sources
Here are additional sources that contain statistical information about religion. Some are freely available while others are licensed resources.
- Explore Census Data (formerly American FactFinder)This is a new platform for accessing U.S. census data. American FactFinder moved to this new platform on March 31, 2020.
- Historical Statistics of the United States-Millennial Edition Online This link opens in a new window
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Searchable updated source of historical data on government statistics, including population, work and welfare, economics, and more. - Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) This link opens in a new window
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Includes largest archive of digital social science data.
- NationMasterGeneral stats on different countries, including some comparative data on specific crimes.
- OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
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Online library of e-books, e-periodicals, and interactive statistical databases produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). - ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. This link opens in a new window
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Comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States, from 2013 to the present. Volumes covering 1879-2012 are on the US Census site.
- UNdataAccess point for various United Nations databases.
- UNICEF Data: Monitoring the Situation of Children and WomenUNICEF measures the situation of children and women and tracks progress through data collection and analysis.
- World Development IndicatorsLicensed resource.
Working with Numbers
When working with statistics, aggregate data, and microdata, it is important to consider a number of factors:
- Geography - the country, region, city, neighborhood
- Time Period - current, historical, over time, etc.
- Population/Units of Analysis - age, sex, race, ancestry, educational attainment/households, individuals
- Variables - responses to questionnaire and how they are organized
- Context - what is the hypothesis being investigated
- Questionnaire - what questions were asked; shows what will and won't be available in the data
- Availability - Sometimes the data you require was not collected, or was not arranged in the way that works best for your project. You may need to use multiple types of data from different sources as a way around this.
- Source - When you find data online, make sure it is clear from where (and when) the information originated.
The UCLA Data Archive's Tutorials provides excellent information about working with social science data, citing data sources, how to read codebooks, etc.
Visit the ATS Statistical Computing website for tutorials, online statistical publications, consulting, etc.