STATS Indiana

Indiana's Public Data Utility

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About STATS Indiana

STATS Indiana focuses on data for actionable use by Hoosier government, business, education, nonprofits, health organizations and anyone needing to understand “how many, how much, how high or low” for their community.

With nearly 1 million page views and about 350,000 visits each year, STATS Indiana has won multiple awards from national organizations. Because of its unique state government/public university partnership and its wide-ranging data and tools, it is frequently cited as a “data jewel in Indiana’s crown.”

Since the 1980s, STATS Indiana has been Indiana’s leading source for economic and demographic data. It provides convenient access to data for geographic areas in Indiana and across the nation because we think context and the ability to compare areas on all measures is crucial.

The original catalyst for a statewide, digitally accessible database began with the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, but has received major support from the State of Indiana, becoming an outstanding example of the creative partnership that can occur between state agencies and state-funded research institutions.

Current support comes from the State of Indiana and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, the Lilly Endowment, and Indiana University. With assistance from the Governor’s office, STATS Indiana has added significantly to its databases and its ability to meet researchers’ and policy analysts’ need for better data to inform issues and decisions.

About the Data

The data on STATS Indiana are provided by more than 100 federal and state agencies, along with commercial or private data sources. The STATS Indiana database powers also powers Hoosiers by the Numbers and dozens of local and regional websites throughout Indiana. We add value to these data in the form of calculations, graphs, comparisons of time or geography, time series and maps.

At STATS Indiana, timeliness and accuracy are both critical:

  • We work daily to ensure the data on STATS Indiana are updated as they are released from the source agencies — we don’t let new data sit in a queue waiting for a “scheduled” quarterly update. To help users know what to expect and when, we maintain a release calendar.

  • We use both automated and personal quality control checks to insure the data coming into the database are accurate. Over the years, we have established relationships with source providers that attest to our keen-eyed work, alerting agencies (such as BLS and BEA) when there is a problem with their data.

Each topic has a landing page that provides the data as well as metadata. These "About the Data" pages provide the essentials users need, including info on frequency, the specific source agency, geographic coverage, years of availability and any caveats related to the data.

Feel free to contact us with specific questions about the data that aren’t covered through resources on our site. Our partner agency in the State Data Center Program, the Indiana State Library, may also be able to assist you and can be reached by email at kspringer@library.in.gov. The State Library, as a federal and state document depository, is also an excellent resource for historical data.