  Several sources of total cross sections for e$^+$e$^-$ pair production by
photon interaction with matter, used by major Monte Carlo codes for particle
transport, are quantitatively evaluated with respect to experimental
measurements collected from the literature. They include data libraries
deriving from theoretical calculations and analytical formulae representing
empirical fits to tabulations. Although most of these sources of cross sections
are based on one theoretical reference, the statistical data analysis
documented in the paper highlights differences in their compatibility with
experiment. The cross sections collected in the 1997 version of the Evaluated
Photon Data Library (EPDL) exhibit the lowest incompatibility with experiment;
the paper details the validation results for all the examined cross section
sources. The scarcity of experimental data does not allow the validation
process to discern pair production in the field of the nucleus and in the field
of atomic electrons; nevertheless, the paper documents relevant clues regarding
the contribution of the latter to reproduce experimental measurements.
