January 2010

Sex, SUVs, and Statistics

The states with the shortest commuting times are South Dakota and North Dakota. "You may think that the last place to find a portrait of a nation is a book full of numbers," says Robert J. Samuelson in a January 18th article in Newsweek.** He's referring to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, a compendium of all kinds of facts affecting people of the United States, published annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. As a fan of the Statistical Abstract, Samuelson calls it "often the first go-to source" when he's writing a story, and he likes to browse through the print version and scout out interesting tidbits such as these reported in the Newsweek article:

• "The state with the longest average commuting time is New York, at 31.5 minutes; the states with the shortest are North and South Dakota at about 16 minutes, followed closely by Montana and Nebraska at 17.6."
• "From 1980 to 2007, the number of pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs almost quadrupled to 101.5 million, while the number of cars rose only 12 percent to 135.9 million."
• "Among men 15-44, the median number of lifetime sexual partners is 5.4.... Among women, the median number of partners is 3.3, ..."
• "In 2009, women were 16.8 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives. In other national legislatures, women did better. For Canada, the comparable figure was 22.1 percent; for the Netherlands, 41.3 percent. The United States was roughly on par with Uzbekistan's 17.5 percent."

When you're looking for facts about the United States based on numbers, start with the Statistical Abstract. It's available online on the Web and in print in the Library:

• online: The 2010 Statistical Abstract: The National Data Book
• print: Statistical Abstract of the United States -- located on the first floor of the Library in the Reference Collection: REFERENCE HA202 .U5
• For additional sources of statistics see the list of statistics sources that the Library provides

For questions such as, how many people were without health insurance last year? or what's the survival rate for an organ transplant?, answers can be found in the Statistical Abstract. So take a look. Explore it just for fun or use it when you need facts to support (or refute) contentions in a paper or speech. And be aware, as Samuelson reminds us, "The Stat Abstract provides a flood tide of facts. But how we interpret, discuss, and debate them is the stuff of democracy."

You may read Samuelson's article at Newsweek online or read it ad-free in a library database (Academic Search Premier).

** Samuelson, R. J. (2010, January 18). Suicide, sex, and SUVs: this book covers them all -- and more. Newsweek 155, 20.

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