Historical Statistics
The Government Documents/Microforms Collection is the primary location for statistics produced by the U.S. and other governments and by international organizations. Many reference sources for statistics of all kinds are located there, as is a complete set of the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. back to 1878.
Research Guides
United States Census Data Resources
Several overviews of U.S. and foreign statistics are available:
The statistical work of the national government, by Laurence F. Schmeckebier. Baltimore, Md., The Johns Hopkins Press, 1925, 574 p.
Baker Business | Historical Collections -- Baker Old Class | DBD S347
Law School | Harvard Depository | US 964 SCH
Widener | RR 4219.2
--Offers an excellent review of pre-1925 government statistics.
Statistical sources for social research on Western Europe 1945-1995: a guide to social statistics, by Franz Rothenbacher. Opladen : Leske + Budrich, 1998, 399 p.
Widener | RR 4205.38
--Covers international organizations and the publications of individual countries. Gives references for works covering earlier statistics.
HOLLIS records of books containing largely statistics bear the term <Statistics> attached to their subject headings, e.g., <France--Statistics> and <France--Emigration and immigration--Statistics>. You can enter <France> [Subject search] and scan the resulting list of subject headings or retrieve all the statistics books under France with a keyword subject keyword search, e.g., <France statistics>. This search will also retrieve <Aliens--France--Cultural assimilation--Statistics>.
Statistical abstract of the United States, prepared by the chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department. Washington, 1879- .
Census Bureau, including earlier editions (1878-2005) .
HathiTrust
LLMC (1916-2006)
Documents (Lamont) | Harvard Depository.
Documents (Lamont) | Ref | HA202 .U54x.
Lamont | REFERENCE READY REF | HA202 .A2x Latest edition only.
Widener | RR 4219.4 (Latest ed.) .
Recent editions in several Harvard libraries.
Harvard Libraries Electronic Resources
Historical Statistics of the United States (HSUS)
LexisNexis Statistical combines:
- American Statistics Index (1974- ) for all U.S. Government statistics
- Statistical Reference Index (1980-) for other U.S. statistics
- Index to International Statistics (1983- ) for international organization statistics
Full-text of the documents indexed is available on microfiche in Government Documents and Microforms.