1. Access the Web site for the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov/) and explore the links to People, Business, and American FactFinder (the last is among the links on the left side) to familiarize yourself with the variables and proportions that characterize your hometown, state, and the United States as a whole. This builds a set of statistical expectations within your thinking that is based on accurate representational data that you can use to evaluate other sources of information.