Statistics
Using data and statistics is a great way to explore your topic in greater depth and to help construct a solid foundation for any argument you are developing. These resources offer important and accessible statistics to explore on a range of different topics.
For more information on why and how to incorporate statistics into your speech, check out this great blog post from Virtual Speech
A non-partisan 'fact-tank,' Pew Research Center conducts public opinion polling alongside other forms of research to inform the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
Statistical Abstracts of the United States
Statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Examples include national and state statistics on population, income and health issues.
Official data portal with statistics from all major US government agencies. Also has population, demographic, and economic data from the US Census Bureau.
The World Health Organization has made available it's huge database of health-related statistics. View statistics for more than 1000 indicators for all member countries.
The World Bank provides free and open access to all of it's global development data and statistics. View statistics for hundreds of global development-related indicators for all countries.
The UN's comprehensive data hub brings together a range of international statistical databases and lets users search them from a single point of entry. Contains over 60 million data points.
Online reference resource from the CIA that presents almanac-style information about all of the countries in the world. Information covers government, economy, geography, military and more!
Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
CDC is America's health protection agency and has a range of data and statistics related to common health and medical issues.