World Happiness Report 2015

From my corner of the law library, I would bet that happiness means the end of finals (or the end of law school and the beginning of a new career) for most law students finishing up their exams this week.  But it's also a good time of year to consider what constitutes genuine happiness in life--not only for individuals, but for the nations of the world trying to foster the well-being of their citizens and societies.  World Happiness Report 2015 is the latest in a series of landmark surveys of well-being and happiness as measures of economic and social development in 158 countries.  The Report, produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN): A Global Initiative for the United Nations, contains statistics, maps and charts ranking and comparing nations on the basis of six key indicators of well-being: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita; healthy years of life expectancy; social support; trust; perceived freedom to make life decisions; and generosity.

A work of "leading experts across fields--economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and more," the Report also features in-depth chapters on special topics such as how happiness measures differ by age, gender, and global region; how societies can create sustainable happiness in their young (under age 18); and new findings from the neuroscience of happiness.  The full report in PDF is available here.       

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Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics

Are you interested in federal criminal prosecution or defense?  Do you need reliable, current crime and sentencing statistics for a research paper or assignment?  The United States Sentencing Commission has just released its free, online 2014 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics (scroll down for links to the content).  The Sourcebook contains statistics on federal crimes and offenders and the application of the federal sentencing guidelines in selected districts, circuits, and nationally. It includes numerical and demographic data on offenders by crime category, statistics on guilty pleas and trials, comparisons of sentences to the guideline range, data from drug and immigration cases, and sentencing appeals information.

Best of all, there is an Interactive Sourcebook where you can create customized statistical tables and filter data by circuit, district, and date. For historical or comparative statistics, consult the Annual Reports & Sourcebooks Archives, containing all Sourcebooks back to the 1996 first edition.      

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New Study Reveals Data on Lynching

The extra-judicial practice of lynching in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is a subject of interest to many students of legal history and civil rights. But compiling the hard statistical data, the victims and the when and where of the lynchings that took place in the United States, as well as the context of these events, has been a major challenge and an ongoing effort of historians and other scholars. Today, a New York Times article described a brand new report, "Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror," produced by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, after five years of research.  The Report Summary is available here, and the full report is available upon request from the organization.

As the article explains, "efforts to count the number of lynchings in the country go back at least to 1882, when the The Chicago Tribune began publishing each January a list of all executions and lynching in the previous year." In 1995, sociology professors Stewart Tolnay and E. M. Beck compiled what may be the most accurate inventory to that time, based on previously published lists.  The book based on their inventory, A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930, is available at Axinn Library. Both the new report and the books and articles by Tolnay and Beck are important resources for research on this topic.      

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Turkey Data

Thanksgiving weekend is a good time to focus on turkeys--and the surprising data available on the bird and the turkey industry from government web sites and trade associations.  Did you know, for example, that American turkeys have been getting bigger and bigger every year for at least 40 years, doubling in weight since 1929?  Check out this 2013 synopsis of interesting turkey facts from the  Economics & Statistics Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. For some different data and turkey history, the National Turkey Federation, a turkey farmer trade association, is a good source.  A overview of today's turkey industry, which the United States leads as the world's largest producer and exporter, and the legislative and policy concerns of turkey farmers, is available in the Federation's 2013 Annual Report.  

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Business Environment Snapshots

The World Bank has combined its own data with that of other publishers to produce Business Environment Snapshots, a free internet resource providing a measurement and analysis of the business climate in 183 countries (or,"economies"), with links to the text of selected business-related laws and regulations. In addition to key data, including each country's rankings on criteria such as political risk, corruption, and Institutional Investor's country credit ratings, each snapshot includes an "Analytical Work" section of World Bank reports on the country published in the last five years.

For law students interested in locating statutes and regulations from Asian, African, South and Central American, Middle Eastern, or Eastern European nations, this is a resource not to be overlooked. The "Legislation" section draws from, and links to, World Bank's Doing Business Law Library, a free collection of business-related legislation from official sources where available (in English and other languages), along with some unofficial English translations.    

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Working Conditions Laws: Global Report

Minimum wage and other working conditions are hot topics in the media lately.  Those looking for an international view of comparative working conditions laws, including wage, hour, maternity and annual leave laws in more than 150 countries, have an excellent resource for research papers and legal practice, as well as for business development, in Working Conditions Laws Report 2012: A Global Review. This report, released in 2013 by the International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, draws from the latest data in ILO's Working Conditions Laws Database.  It provides a wealth of statistical information summarized by region and outlined country by country with numerous graphs and charts.

The ILO maintains many other valuable databases of worldwide labor laws, standards, and working condition and employment statistics.  In addition, the ILO website provides other downloadable reports and working papers on specific labor and employment issues. 

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The Measure of America 2013-2014

There are hundreds if not thousands of reports published each year measuring the economic health of the United States--its gross national product, interest and employment rates, or growth in manufacturing.  This week a report was released that focuses not on economic measures but on measures of "well-being" in the lives of Americans.  "The Measure of America 2013-2014" is a project of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), an independent, nonprofit leader in international social science research. It uses a tailored and updated version of the Human Development Index, first used by the United Nations, in order to measure the key factors in human development that shape the everyday lives of ordinary Americans, their opportunities and potential for living "freely chosen lives of value."  The latest Measure of America report is a revealing portrait comparing states and 25 metropolitan areas--and demographic groups in each--over time and with each other, based on a wide range of indicators, including most prominently life expectancy, educational attainment, and median earnings. It makes for fascinating reading and is also a good source of statistical information for public policy research.   

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New Survey of State Taxes

April 15 is fast approaching, but while the Internal Revenue Service awaits our tax returns, the U.S. Census Bureau released this week a gem of statistical data for anyone interested in state taxation or budget issues. The 2012 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections has a wealth of information on many types of state taxes and license fees imposed by the 50 states, including income, property, sales, and excise taxes. It breaks down the nearly $800 billion collected in FY2012, a record high total, by state and detailed tax categories. The Census Bureau web site is home to the official announcement of the Survey's release, a brief Summary Report, pages of detailed data for every state, and a ranking of the states by their total tax collections, as well as related surveys.  If you need reliable current data on state tax categories and revenues for research or personal interest, begin with the Census Bureau's Annual Survey.   

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Statistics Research Resources

Statistics research can often be cumbersome and require checking many sources.  One great source that can help with this is the "Statistics Resources and Big Data on the Internet."  This is a comprehensive listing of statistics, big data resources and sites on the Internet that is updated frequently.
The sites in this resource can help to locate the latest statistics resources applicable to many different areas, research topics and more.  Click here to access the resource.
 (credit to Law Librarian Blog)

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Daily Chart

While prowling the Web I came across a blog that is both fun and enlightening while providing key facts and statistics that illustrate current world issues. The Economist blog, Daily Chart, is true to its name and provides a graph or chart to illustrate the topic of the day. It also cites the sources behind the graphics, many of which are useful for law student seminar papers. Recent posts have offered a graphical view of subjects as diverse as the distribution of corporate wealth, world population growth, trends in U.S. city murder rates, and the world's leaning buildings. Of course, a few minutes with Daily Chart also makes a great study break.

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United States Census Bureau QuickFacts Tables

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released updated summary profiles for various geographical areas within the 50 states. The tables include updated information from frequently requested statistics and provide statistics for all counties, cities and towns with more than 5,000 people. They also include information from various Census Bureau programs including the 2010 Census, 2010 American Community Survey and 2007 Survey of Business Owners, as well as student state facts. Access the full updated tables here.
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Rule of Law Index

The World Justice Project, following "three years of intensive development, testing, and vetting--including interviewing 35,000 people and over 900 experts in 35 countries," released its first annual WJP Rule of Law Index on October 14. The Index provides detailed information on ten dimensions of the rule of law--from open government and fundamental freedoms to the absence of corruption--in countries representing every region of the world. Working with 49 sub-factors and comparing countries within geographic regions and income level peer groups, the goal of the report, which also includes individual country profiles, is to chart each nation's adherence to the rule of law in practice, as experienced by its citizens. The breakdown by individual factors is one of the most interesting features of the Index, allowing the identification of particular strengths and weaknesses as they appear now and may change over time. The World Justice Project began its work under the auspices of the American Bar Association, but became an independent nonprofit organization in 2009.
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End of term

Follow the wrap of the Supreme Court's 09-10 term on SCOTUSBLOG . You can also keep up-to-date with any developments on Elena Kagan's confirmation. Check out the sister site - SCOTUS WIKI for stats on the Supreme Court. These stats rival those kept by baseball.

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Supreme Stats

For those interested in analyzing the decisions and justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, there are two great web sites for you. SCOTUS BLOG has a companion site, SCOTUS WIKI which provides Supreme Court statistics, such as Justice agreement, opinion tally and a circuit scorecard by term going back to 1995.

Another site, the Supreme Court database, provides downloadable data sets for you to manipulate and analyze in your favorite statistics software. Currently the data on this site goes back to 1953. According to the National Law Journal, they have just received funding to expand their data back to the first Supreme Court recorded decision in 1792.

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Financial Services Fact Book

Reputable, essential, unique--Financial Services Fact Book 2009 is an online book for the times. With the current economic downturn, the "financial services industry," an umbrella term that includes banking, mortgages, insurance, securities, consumer finance, and related services, is at center stage. Financial Services Fact Book 2009, jointly produced by the Insurance Information Institute (III) and the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), provides recent commentary along with comparative statistics and attractive graphs and charts covering all categories of the financial services industry for the period 2003-2007. This is a user friendly resource for reliable background and data about an important law-related sector of the economy. Bookmark the web page, or link from LEXICAT, the library catalog.



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Tracking Labor and the Economy

With the current state of the economy, here's a reminder about the best official source of U.S. economic and labor market statistics. The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, has a user-friendly site that provides law students and attorneys with data for everything from class assignments and research papers to business decisions and career planning. This is a good time to become familiar with the wealth of information at BLS.gov, including current and comparative statistics on employment, layoffs, pay and benefits, inflation, unions, consumer spending, and occupational categories. Not to be overlooked are the month-to-month federal, state, and metropolitan area "Economy at a Glance" tables and the up-to-date articles and news releases on key economic topics.



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UNdata

The UN produces lots of statistics on a wide variety of subjects, but they have not always been easy to find on the internet because this data is collected by many specialized agencies and sub-organizations and because it has often been presented in hard-to-use interfaces. But it looks like that's changing with the new UNdata site, which attempts to consolidate all of those statistics on a single, easy-to-use website.



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