How to Cite a Statistic Correctly: Source, Year, Sample, Link

To cite a statistic correctly, give four things: the primary source that produced the number, the period the data describe, the group that was measured, and a link to the original release. A sentence such as "54% of US employees with remote-capable jobs worked a hybrid schedule in August 2026 (Gallup, Global Indicator: Hybrid Work)" passes that test. "Over half of workers are hybrid" does not, because it drops the population, the date and the producer, and each of those changes what the number means.

This guide sets out the elements of a complete citation, shows why each one matters with figures from Statlyst datasets, and explains how to use the citation tools on every Statlyst statistics page.

The four parts of a statistical citation

Every figure you quote should carry the following.

• Primary source. The organization that collected or calculated the data: a statistical office, central bank, research team or company. Name the publisher and the title of the release.
• Reference period. The month, quarter or year the data describe. This is often different from the publication date.
• Population or sample. Who or what was counted: all employed adults, remote-capable employees, households, firms with 250 or more staff, respondents in 13 countries.
• Location of the original. A URL to the release, table or report, plus the date you checked it if the figure may be revised.

Optional but useful: the exact wording of the measure (for example "seasonally adjusted" or "90 or more days delinquent") and the sample size for surveys.

Name the primary source, not the page that repeated it

Statistics travel. A figure from a government release is quoted in a news story, then in a blog post, then in a slide deck, and each step can round the number, drop the date or change the wording. The Statlyst methodology follows the same rule we recommend to readers: cite the organization that produced the data, not an aggregator that repeated it.

When you use a Statlyst page, the original publisher is shown next to every figure. Cite that publisher as the source. If you also want to credit Statlyst for compiling the figure, add it as a secondary reference ("compiled by Statlyst"), not as the source.

A quick test for a primary source: the page should describe how the data were collected, or link to a methodology note, and the number should appear in a table, chart or text written by the organization that ran the count or survey.

State the reference period, not just the publication date

The period a figure describes and the date it was published are often a year or more apart. Two examples from Statlyst datasets:

• The BLS figure on contingent work comes from the July 2023 Contingent Worker Supplement, but the release appeared in November 2024. The gig economy statistics cite 11.9 million independent contractors "in July 2023", not in 2024.
• The WHO estimate that 16% of working-age adults had a mental disorder refers to 2023, although the fact sheet was updated in September 2026.

Write the reference period into your sentence ("in July 2023", "in Q2 2026", "in 2024/25") and keep the publication date for the reference list. For monthly or quarterly series, say whether the figure is seasonally adjusted, as the Federal Reserve does for the $1,352.4 billion revolving credit figure for August 2026.

Describe who was measured

The same topic can produce very different numbers depending on the population. The hybrid work statistics page shows this clearly:

Figure	Source	Population
54% hybrid	Gallup, August 2026	US employees with remote-capable jobs
35% worked at home on days worked	BLS American Time Use Survey, 2025	All employed Americans
26% hybrid week	WFH Research (SWAA), Sept. 2025 to Aug. 2026	US full-time wage and salary employees
9.8% hybrid	Statistics Canada, May 2026	All employed Canadians

None of these numbers is wrong. They answer different questions. A citation that says "54% of workers are hybrid" turns a statement about remote-capable employees into a claim about the whole workforce, which the data do not support. Gallup defines hybrid employees as those who work from home or a remote location 10% to less than 100% of the time, according to its indicator methodology; a short version of that definition belongs in any careful citation.

Quote the measure exactly

Two releases can describe the same subject with different measures. On the credit card statistics page:

• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports credit card balances of $1.26 trillion at the end of Q2 2026, based on credit report data.
• The Federal Reserve Board reports revolving consumer credit of $1,352.4 billion in August 2026, a broader series that is mostly, but not only, credit card debt.

If you cite "$1.35 trillion in credit card debt", you have attached the wrong label to the Board's series. Copy the measure as the publisher names it, and if you need a short label, use the publisher's own wording.

The same care applies to counts and rates. The Health and Safety Executive reports 964,000 workers with work-related stress, depression or anxiety in Great Britain in 2024/25, and separately 409,000 new cases. The first is prevalence, the second incidence. Mixing them changes the claim.

Give the sample and the method for surveys

For survey figures, add the sample size and survey type when they are available. Pew Research Center, for example, states that it surveyed 5,273 US adults from Oct. 12 to 18, 2026, all members of its American Trends Panel, for the election chatbot figure on our AI chatbot page (Pew methodology).

When the producer is a company, say so. The sleep statistics page notes that Resmed surveyed 30,000 people in 13 countries, and that Resmed makes sleep devices. Readers can then judge the figure for themselves. The companion guide on how to read a survey statistic covers this in more depth.

Citation formats with worked examples

Most style guides treat a statistical release as a report or web page by a corporate author. Three patterns that work:

In running text

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, total US household debt was $18.8 trillion at the end of Q2 2026.

Reference list, APA style

Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (2026, August). Household debt balances decreased slightly; credit card delinquency transition rates remained steady. https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/research/2026/20260811

Footnote or caption

Source: UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Cyber security breaches survey 2025/2026 (fieldwork August to December 2025). Figure: 43% of UK businesses identified a breach or attack in the previous 12 months.

The last example comes from our data breach statistics. Note that the department warns its estimates, "like all survey results, are subject to a margin of error", which is worth repeating if you convert the 43% into a count of about 612,000 businesses.

Using the citation tools on Statlyst pages

Every Statlyst statistics page includes three tools for citing.

• Copy button on each figure. It copies the statistic sentence, the publisher, the release title, the year, the source URL and a direct link to the figure on Statlyst.
• How to cite box. At the foot of each page, a ready APA reference for the page as a whole, useful when you draw on several figures from one dataset.
• CSV download. Each row contains the statistic, value, year, publisher, source title, source URL and the verbatim source quote, so you can check the wording yourself.

Each figure also has its own anchor link, such as /hybrid-work-statistics#stat-s1-1, which you can share to point a reader straight to the row and its source quote.

A checklist before you publish

• Did you open the original release and find the number there?
• Does your sentence state the reference period?
• Does it name the population, in the publisher's terms?
• Did you copy the measure exactly, including adjustments such as "seasonally adjusted" or "per 100,000 workers"?
• For a survey, did you note the sample size and who ran it?
• Does the link go to the release rather than to a secondary page?

FAQ

Should I cite Statlyst or the original source?

Cite the original publisher as the source of the figure. If Statlyst helped you find it, you can add "compiled by Statlyst" with a link to the figure's anchor, but the producer of the data should be the primary citation.

What if the publication year and the data year differ?

Use the data year in your sentence ("in July 2023") and the publication date in the reference list. Readers need to know when the measurement was taken, not only when it was released.

How do I cite a figure that has since been revised?

Cite the release you used, with its date, and add the date you checked it. Many official series, especially monthly economic data, are revised as more responses arrive, so the date tells readers which version you saw.

Is a rounded number acceptable?

Yes, if the rounding is clear and does not change the claim. "About 6 billion internet users in 2025" matches the ITU figure. Avoid rounding that moves a figure across a threshold, such as turning 49% into "half".