Statistics (numerical data) can help to stregthen an argument in a research paper, project or presentation. There are many sources of statistics and many are available online.
Here are some excellent sources to start with:
- Statistical Abstract of the United States from ProQuest.
- United States Census includes American FactFinder the basic tool for finding census information.
A Web search can be quite effective in finding statistics. Do searches like:
smoking teens statistics
Consider the source!
Not all sources for statistics are reliable. Government agencies and educational institutions are reliable sources for this kind of infomation. You can limit your search to government and educational sites:
smoking teens statistics site:gov
smoking teens statistics site:edu
Statistical data is also produced by organizations (e.g. the American Lung Association). So you could also search for:
smoking teens statistics site:org
Beware! Many organizations are advocating a particular point of view. Take this into account when using statistics from these sites.
The sections below list many useful and reliable sources for statistics