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Is “data” considered singular or plural?

I was reading a book in which the author has used the sentence as follows:

Data show that unemployment in America is in smaller states where farming is the main occupation.

But when I am searching in the internet it reveals that Data shows is used more frequently.

Can anyone explain the correct usage?

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Sudhir
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    It depends on whether you're addressing stickler professors and pedantic scholars or not, apparently. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 12 '12 at 17:30
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    This has been talked to death, and not just here. The bottom line is whichever you choose, you will annoy half your readers. My answer is to avoid the question: talk about the facts or the numbers, or rewrite: What is clear in the data is X, or What is shown by the data is X. – StoneyB on hiatus Dec 12 '12 at 17:58

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