From the Summary/News Release:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has issued the Public Libraries Survey (PLS) report for fiscal year 2007. This is the second PLS report released since IMLS was given responsibility for the annual survey, which includes information on population of service areas, service outlets, library collections and services, library staff, and operating revenue and expenditures.

The report includes a number of key findings to assist the library community, and policymakers, at the local, state, and national level, in making decisions to better their communities.
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+ The growth in per capita circulation from FY 2006 to FY 2007 was a continuation of the steady growth that has occurred since FY 2000. Per capita circulation grew from 6.4 materials per person to 7.4 materials per person from FY 2000 to FY 2007, an increase of 16 percent.

+ Nationwide, visits to public libraries totaled 1.4 billion, or 4.9 library visits per capita, a small increase from the 4.8 visits per capita that were made during FY 2006. As in the case of per capita circulation, this is a continuation of a larger, longer upward trend. Per capita visitation increased from 4.2 to 4.9 between FY 1998 and FY 2007, an overall increase of 17 percent.

+ In FY 2007, total nationwide circulation of public library materials was 2.2 billion, or 7.4 materials circulated per capita; these were slight increases from the 2.1 billion total materials and 7.3 materials per capita that were circulated during FY 2006.

+ Internet terminals available for public use in public libraries nationwide numbered 208,000, or 3.6 per 5,000 people. These were increases from the previous year’s figures of 196,000 total terminals and 3.4 terminals per 5,000 people.

+ Nationwide circulation of children’s materials was 739.7 million, or 34 percent of total circulation during FY 2007. Attendance at children’s programs was 59.0 million in FY 2007, up from 57.6 million the prior year.

Direct to Complete Report

Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services

From an Article:

With 200 million profiles revealing personal data about sex, religion, political views, and marital status, Facebook is a social scientist’s dream. If that personal information is gold, Facebook is rich with it, and not all of it’s protected by privacy settings, either.

Rapleaf, a Web search solutions provider, searched over 100 million public profiles to find the most common names on Facebook, tallying up the most popular first names, last names, and finally full names.

Only one female name shows up on the list; ‘Maria’ at number ten. Unsurprisingly, the most common first name is ‘John,’ with over a million found profiles, ‘David’ and ‘Michael’ coming in at second and third, respectively. ‘Mike’ is apparently the fifth most popular, though, so if nicknames weren’t counted as unique, ‘Michael’ would be number one.

Direct to Complete List (via Rapleaf)

Sources: Switched.com (via TechCrunch)

From the Announcement:

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 62 percent of households reported using Internet access in the home in 2007, an increase from 18 percent in 1997, the first year the bureau collected data on Internet use.

Sixty-four percent of individuals 18 and over used the Internet from any location in 2007, while only 22 percent did so in 1997.

Among households using the Internet in 2007, 82 percent reported using a high-speed connection, and 17 percent used a dial-up connection.

“As access to high speed connections have become more prevalent, so too have the number of people that connect to the Internet at home,” said Thom File, a statistician with the Census Bureau Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. “These data give us a better understanding of who is using the Internet and from where.”

Among the states, Alaska and New Hampshire residents had among the highest rates of Internet use from any location (home, work or public access) for those 3 and older in 2007. Mississippi and West Virginia had among the lowest rates of Internet use at about 52 percent.

Internet usage also varied by education. For individuals 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree, 87 percent reported going online from any location in 2007. For those with only some college, 74 percent reported using the Internet. About half (49 percent) of those with only a high school diploma reported using the Internet, compared with 19 percent for those without a high school diploma.

Internet usage also varied by race; 69 percent of whites lived in households with Internet use, while the same was true for 51 percent of blacks, 73 percent of Asians and 48 percent of Hispanics.

When looking at age groups, the percentage of 18- to 34-year-olds who accessed the Internet was more than double (73 percent) that of people 65 and older (35 percent). Among children 3 to 17, 56 percent used the Internet.

Direct to Detailed Tables

See Also: Households With a Computer and Internet Use: 1984 to 2007 (XLS File)

See Also: Review Past Reports

Source: U.S. Census

From the Web Site:

The OECD is very pleased to announce the launch of the OECD Factbook eXplorer - the interactive graphical tool for analysing country statistics from the OECD Factbook 2009.

Try the OECD Factbook eXplorer which combines maps and graphs with stories allowing users to examine time developments and interrelations between indicators. Select indicator for colours in map, for scatterplot, see stories with animated graphs; generate your own stories.

Direct to Factbook eXplorer

See Also: OECD Interactive Charts

OECD Interactive Charts ranking countries on one indicator over time. Select an indicator in the topics list, see ranking of countries, select one or two countries and activate time animation.

See Also: Trendalyzer

See how countries perform on several development indicators over time. You can select any two indicators for the axes in the graph, and the size of bubbles reflect the size of a third indicator of your choice. Then you can play with time. You can select countries and track and compare their performance.

See Also: Complete 2009 OECD Factbook

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Hat Tip: Stuart B.

Highlights include:

+ Fifteen Years Online: Overall Internet Use in the United States — The percentage of Americans who use the Internet has reached 80 percent in the current Digital Future study.

+ Age and the Internet — Not surprisingly, Internet use increases as age decreases. The highest percentage of Internet use is among Americans under age 18. Even at higher age levels, large percentages of Americans use the Internet; for example, 40 percent of those age 66 and older go online — a level that has increased from 29 percent in 2000.

+ Hours per Week Online — The amount of time that Internet users spent online has grown in each year of the Digital Future studies, and has now surpassed an average of 17 hours per week.

+ Hours per Week Online: Light Users vs. Heavy Users — The Digital Future study found very large differences between the online hours of heavy users and light users. Light users spent an average of 2.8 hours per week online, compared to heavy users who average 42 hours a week online.

+ Working Computers in the Home — The percentage of homes with three or more continues to increase. Now, 24 percent of American households have at least three computers. Not surprisingly, the percentage of households with no computers continues to decline; in the current study only 15 percent of homes in America do not have a computer.

+ Internet Non-Users: Reasons for Not Being Online? — The most common reason for not using the Internet was “no interest” or “not useful” — cited by 30 percent of all non-users — the first time that explanation has been the most-cited reason. In second place, and close behind “lack of interest,” is “no computer” or “no Internet connection.”

+ Much More in the Highlights

Direct to Report Highlights (12 pages; PDF; Free) ||| Order the Complete Report

Source: USC Annenberg School

From the News Release:

comScore, Inc today released a report on the Canadian online video market, based on February 2009 comScore Video Metrix data, which showed that 21 million Canadians viewed more than 3.1 billion videos online during the month. The average Canadian online video viewer spent 10 hours viewing videos in February, up 53 percent from their average viewing time last year.

Source: comScore

See Also: In-Stat: 66.3 Million US TV Viewers are Simultaneously Using a PC While Watching TV

From the Announcement:

QuickStats allows users to easily create tables by selecting from a list of datasets, then selecting variables contained within as column and row categories, employing a simple drag-and-drop process. Once the tables are produced, they can choose to view their results in bar graph form, downloads into MS Excel, create a printer layout, or save them by generating a unique table ID for quick retrieval.

Currently statistics dealing with higher education in the USA are available.

Direct to QuickStats

Source: NCES

From the NCES Web Site:

The new tool takes advantage of the latest internet technology to present users with a friendlier interface, enhanced analysis selections, and improved reporting options to aid researchers, policy-makers, the media, and others interested in investigating the results from NAEP assessments.

With the NAEP Data Explorer (NDE) you can create statistical tables, charts, and maps to help you find answers. Explore the results of decades of assessment of students’ academic performance, as well as information about factors that may be related to their learning.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Resource of the Week: More Niche Statistics
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

OK, it’s numbers round-up time again — something I’m prone to do when unearthed a bunch of new statistical resources. I collect these the way other people collect stamps, coins or baseball cards. Vetted sources of statistical information are always useful for The Day Job. And please…if you have a few favorites, please let us know so we can share widely.

+ A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009 (Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research)

Numbers don’t tell us much without insight and interpretation, in fact, you’re going to see conflicting numbers of usage from many of the agencies and social networks themselves. The key is to look at trend movements, don’t focus on the specific numbers but the changes to them over time. I put more weight on active unique users in the last 30 days vs overall registered, in fact, the actual active conversion rate will often range from 10-40% of actual users sticking around and using the social network, so don’t be fooled by puffed numbers. No single metric is a good indicator, you have to evaluate the usage from multiple dimensions, so you also have to factor in what are users doing, time on site, interaction, and of course, did they end up buying, recommending products, or improving their lives.

Owyang, an analyst for Forrester, says he will be updating this information throughout the year.

+ State Economies at a Glance (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces Economy at a Glance pages at the national, regional, state, and metropolitan area levels. The data displayed in these pages are assembled from different surveys and programs conducted by BLS. The Economy at a Glance pages are refreshed with current data every time any of the source programs releases new statistics. This typically occurs 7-9 times per month.

+ Tax Statistics (Produced by the Statistics of Income Division and Other Areas of the Internal Revenue Service)

Categories include business tax statistics, individual tax statistics, IRS operations/budget/compliance, statistics of income, charitable and exempt organization statistics, products/publications/papers, statistics by tax form, and more. The What’s New page points to the most recent information added to the site and also to the most popular items. If you want to be alerted when new statistics are posted, you can subscribe to the Tax Stats Dispatch e-mail list.

+ Fire Statistics (U.S. Fire Administration)

This page contains statistics on fires that occur in the United States and analytical and topical reports that describe the national fire problem. Also included are statistics related to firefighters and fire departments.

The U.S. Fire Administration is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

+ Credit card industry facts, debt statistics 2006-2009

This page contains credit card-related statistics — including statistics on credit card debt, credit card delinquencies, credit scores, credit card interest rates, bankruptcies, average credit card debt and more — compiled by the CreditCards.com staff. Statistics on this page will be updated regularly as we receive new or updated credit card data. Some data may appear multiple times on the page because the information is applicable in multiple categories.

CreditCards.com is an established online credit card marketplace that partners with a number of reliable media outlets such as Forbes.com, bizjournals.com, and Forbes.com. Read more about the site here (PDF; 36 KB).

+ Insurance Related Data (Insurance Information Institute)

The Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) compiles the latest facts and statistics relating to the insurance industry.

You’ll find some numbers here that might otherwise be difficult to locate, such as data on annuities, the world’s deadliest catastrophes (including insurance loss data), worst terrorists attacks (with insured property losses), and more.

Movie, Video Revenue Climb 7 Percent to $66 Billion in 2007
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Revenue for the motion picture and video production and distribution industry increased 7 percent in 2007, reaching $66 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Revenue from Web search portals increased 25 percent for a total revenue of $12.1 billion, and their online advertising space grew 32.7 percent with total revenue of $8.7 billion.

These new data come from the 2007 Service Annual Survey: Information Sector Services, a series of tables that is part of a larger survey that tracks economic activity in the services sector, which accounts for 55 percent of economic activity in the United States. This sector includes companies that produce and distribute information and cultural products, as well as companies that provide the means to transmit or distribute these products.

“Whether online news or a wireless signal for a mobile phone, the unique products that make up the information services sector play a significant role in our everyday lives,” said Mark Wallace, chief of the Census Bureau’s Service Sector Statistics Division. “Not only does this survey provide us with information, but it also demonstrates how profoundly this sector contributes to our overall economy.”

The UNECE Statistical Database contains a wide range of data covering Europe, North America and Central Asia. Users can download data free of charge via English or Russian interfaces.

Sections include:

+ Country Overviews

+ Economic Statistics

+ Forestry Statistics

+ Gender Statistics

+ Transport Statistics

+ The UNECE “Data Locator”

Direct to UNECE Database>