Customer Reviews

Statistical Abstract of the United States 1997: The National Data Book

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Though the plot was somewhat thin and didn't hold together all that well, what this book lacks in literary merit it more than makes up for with numbers.

Though there are plenty of large numbers, like 347,991, all the numbers you remember from childhood are also present. The number 9 is a scene-stealer, as usual. I'm told that the Count from Sesame Street had a hand in the editing, and I was able to detect his influence here and there.

My only suggestion is that there should be a character map at the begining of the book, like they have at the beginning of a play. Whenever the number 5.4% came up, I racked my brains trying to remember if that was the same 5.4% that had appeared a hundred pages ago as the unemployment rate. Or was it rate of increase in air pollution measurements over major urban areas? I don't know. But a quick character map would have cleared it right up, saving me a lot of flipping back and forth.

this is one of the best historical Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. that I have ever read. Its really takes adventure to the edge, escpecially when it gets to the health and nutrition section. I severely recomend taking a night out and reading this absolutely great literature.

No, you'll never use *all* the tables.

But, if you're ever interested in "the numbers", this book is usually the best place to start.

It's a lot of data, ranging from Teenage Births the the amount of energy produced in the US every year, to the amount of money spent on Education and the percent of Hispanics with a college degree, to amount of airplanes flying to the amount of people arrested. It's big and you'll never read it if you buy it...END