Future Public Health Leaders

You might think that data and statistics have the same meaning, but they don't.  There is an important distinction between the terms. Data is the raw information; statistics are the interpretation of data.

Here are some questions to think about when you're looking for statistics.

• Do you know/can you guess who might collect the data necessary to produce the statistics?  All kinds of organizations--government agency, non-governmental organization, a professional association--collect and share statistics.  In this case, going directly to the relevant organization is a good tactic.
• Do you know who might publish the statistics?  As above, thinking about who might need these statistics can lead you to the source.
• Do you think that the statistics will be readily available?  Sometimes statistics are collected but published.  I've found leads to statistics in journal articles and their references and in image captions.
• Do you need statistics for a particular time and place?  Remember that data takes time to analyze, so if you need current statistics, you won't find them.  A 2-3 year lag in publication is standard.  And not all data is gathered for all locations, even for governmental agencies, as they depend on the states to provide the data.

We've included a few resources below, but if you'd like to investigate other resources, visit our Health Statistics Research Guide.

What does it mean to search for scholarly literature? Isn't searching Google enough?

In your research classes, you'll need to look beyond Google and  use article databases, such as PubMed, to search for scholarly, peer-reviewed literature.  

Visit the "Searching the Scholarly Literature" tab to learn more!