Where do you get your stats from on the web?

May 1, 2005 10:36 AM

I have been looking for some basic stats like the number of small businesses in a metropolitan statistical area (Kansas City), or the average amount of SMB spending on healthcare, but can't seem to find anything.

Then I realized I don't really know of a good place to go to for some common statistics besides Google.
I was hoping that everyone might be able to post where they get their statistics from -- some kind of online almanac? Does anything like this exist?

If anyone knows the answers to the question above, or numbers based on anecdotal evidence, that would be great too. TIA.

posted by Quami77 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

"Small businesses in the geographic area number approximately 214,687 representing 98% of the total business population. (Based on the number of "Universe (All Firms)" as defined in the 1997 U.S. Census Bureau)."

You might try calling the Kauffman Foundation as they're totally into stuff like this. They have an extensive web site with a lot of resources, but a cursory search did not reveal anything.

I believe the amount of working adults without healthcare per city (or state) was published recently. You might want to apply that number to the number of small businesses to get a rough estimate.
posted by geoff. at 11:03 AM on May 1, 2005

For general statistics, The Statistical Abstract of the United States is a comprehensive resource. The most current version available is 2004-2005.

You may be able to find the answer to your health care question at the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy site.
posted by initapplette at 11:46 AM on May 1, 2005

Remember, of course, that the Kansas City metropolitan area extends into two states and more than two cities, so you might have to get several sets of statistics and combine them.
posted by bingo at 1:36 PM on May 1, 2005

The US Census' American Factfinder is an easy to use web-based search interface into the US Census' data sets -- those same Census data sets being the same place that most of the other sources get their data unless they're engaging in private research.

Not all of the info from the 2002 Economic Census is up yet, but there's quite a bit there. Here's number of establishments by business size and sector for the Kansas City MSA, which answers your first question.

Alternately, there's the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This page has reports on employee benefits in American business, broken down by size of business, including health care. You'll have to dig for the specifics of the number you're looking for with your second question, but this page probably has it.

bingo, the Census data is already sorted into MSAs, so the concern about the Kansas City MSA is already accounted for if you do a query by MSA.
posted by eschatfische at 4:49 PM on May 1, 2005

Well, the link to the Kansas City MSA business patterns didn't work. Try this link, then pull down the menu to select Kansas City.
posted by eschatfische at 4:55 PM on May 1, 2005