For some research, numbers are an essential type of evidence. Many sources for statistics are available in the library. Perhaps the most useful single compilation is the Statistical Abstract of the United States, a small volume that contains hundreds of tables of numbers relating to population, social issues, economics, and so on. For public opinion statistics, consult the surveys conducted by the Gallup Poll, published in annual volumes and in a monthly magazine format. The federal government collects an extraordinary amount of statistical data and has recently been releasing much of the data on the World Wide Web at http://www.census.gov. If you need more detailed statistics than those available in the Statistical Abstract, see if your library has the U.S. Census of Population and Housing or USA Counties on CD-ROM. Two other popular sources of statistical information, especially for economic topics, are the National Trade Data Bank and the National Economic Social and Environmental Data Bank, put out by the Commerce Department, also on CD-ROM.
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