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Finding Data on the Internet

You've cast your lines into the sea of sources, but still aren't finding the
information you need. That's what happens when you don't know the right place to look.

Scroll down to the links below and your days of coming up empty while reporting are over. You'll soon be checking facts and downloading reputable data on everything from public safety to campaign contributions ... you name it. Want more tips? Try my other pages:
How to Use Math and Statistics Questions to Ask Candidates for Public Office.

Basic Stuff
If you go to just one site for U.S. government data, let it be FedStats Find the current time for anyplace on Earth, thanks to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Worry no more about how many square feet are in an acre, or how many meters are in a

mile. Convert most anything to anything else at onlineconversion.com. Need a scientific, currency or other financial calculator? Try calculator.com. How far is City A from City B? Your answer awaits here. Get political, satellite, historical and street maps for anywhere on Earth from National Geographic. Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's State Fact Sheets are available online. They

include aggregate population, farm and agribusiness stats for each state. More than 300 USDA reports and databases, including everything from crop statistics to trade reports, are available through Cornell University. The reports and databases are keyword searchable, too. Check out some of the popular reports requested through the Freedom of Information Act from the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service. The Foreign Agriculture Office of the USDA has made much of its trade data and analysis of world agriculture available. International reporters will want to search the agriculture information database from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Crime
Find incident-based crime statistics from the FBI. Find survey-based crime statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Browse an excellent list of links to international and selected individual U.S. state, local

 and campus crime statistics.

Economics
International economic, social, agricultural and health data from the Organization for

Economic Co-operation and Development You can use this handy calculator to compare the costs of living in U.S. and selected Canadian cities. Find demographic information from government statistics bureaus in Australia or Canada. The definitive one-stop source for information about Latin American nations can be found by visiting LANIC at the University of Texas. Download population, housing or economic data for any community in the U.S. from the Census Bureau. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has made a variety of useful national economic data available through its site. The "Economy at a Glance" section offers monthly employment, inflation and growth numbers for the past 14 months. The "Data" section offers access to more-detailed BLS timeseries employment data. Examine information about the nation's taxpayers from the Internal Revenue Service. The Social Security Administration has put data profiling SSI recipients online, as well as information on the earnings and employment of Social Security-eligible U.S. workers. The Population Reference Bureau provides population resources and world population data.

Education
A far more comprehensive collection of U.S. education data is available from the

National Center for Education Statistics.

Energy
The U.S. Energy Information Administration provides worldwide usage data and

demand forecasts for most any energy source you can think of.

Finding People
Find people or businesses in the United States by searching the online white pages. Look

for international phone directories and calling codes here.

Look up the birthdays of more than 100 million people in the United States via

anybirthday.com. You can also find individuals' last known zip code. Find where to write or call for vital records in the U.S. by checking this guide from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Health
Query national health statistics at the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for

Health Statistics . Look at international health statistics from the World Health Organization.

 Here's a nice page providing background on legal issues in health care.

Investing
Check out the background of many of the nation's publicly-traded corporations through

the SEC's EDGAR site.

Language
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus. Writing a poem or lyric and need a rhyme? Try the WriteExpress Online Rhyming

Dictionary.

Law and Politics

The basic skinny on every nation on Earth is in the CIA World Factbook Or find out what the laws are here in the U.S. by checking out the United States Code Track all pending U.S. Congressional legislation through Thomas Check this page for links to the web sites of all 50 U.S. state legislatures

The most important aspect of government and political coverage in the United States is tracking campaign contributions. (See my article on the subject.) Here are some links to help you "follow the money."
FECinfo. This site will show who how much money the U.S. presidential and

Congressional candidates have raised, and who's given it to them. It also tracks contributions to political parties and candidates' personal political action committees. Be sure to take a look at the tools which track contributors by their occupation, and who's giving money to out-of-state candidates. OpenSecrets.org. This site offers some nice graphical analysis of contribution data, as well as detailed local views. Federal Election Commission. The government agency in charge of collecting campaign contribution data. Here's the "official source" for who's giving what to whom. Upside: Data from previous campaigns. Downside: You'll have do the data analysis yourself. No fancy tools here. Just data, and lots of it. Mail
Find U.S. postal zip codes for any address, or cities for any zip code. Or, do the same for Canada.

Military
Need background on some type of military equipment? All the available stats are here at

the Defense Department's Factfile. Decipher often-confusing military jargon by using this dictionary provided by U.S. Department of Defense. Search for government documents pertaining to POW/MIAs.

Safety
Learn more about accidents at theme parks by visiting my Theme Park Insider Accident

Watch.

Other Resources U.S. major metro newspapers Full text of the Bible Complete works of Shakespeare Hotel reservations (From sister site Theme Park Insider)