About HowIsTheUSDoing

HowIsTheUSDoing puts official U.S. government numbers on prices, jobs, the economy, government finances, banking, housing, energy, health, weather, transportation, farming, crime and the border in one place, so anyone can put them side by side and look at them over any stretch of time.

Independent and nonpartisan

No party, candidate, agency, company or advertiser is behind this site or pays for it. It shows numbers, and does not tell you what they mean or who is responsible for them. Dated landmarks are an option you can switch on, and they are off by default. They mark presidential terms (alternating gray bands from each inauguration day to the next, with the president's name) and wars and other major events (dashed lines), only so you can find dates. They are a reference, and say nothing about credit or blame.

Where the numbers come from

Almost every number comes from a U.S. government source: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Energy Information Administration, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, NOAA (including the National Weather Service), the Department of Transportation (including NHTSA), the Transportation Security Administration, the FDIC, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, FEMA, the CDC, the Department of Agriculture, NASA, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Register. These are read straight from each agency's own published files or data services.

Company figures. A few numbers are not government statistics: subscriber and customer counts, revenue and net income that companies such as Netflix, Comcast and AT&T report about themselves in their filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They are labeled as coming from company filings, and they are the companies’ own figures, not checked by the SEC or by us. The Sources & terms page lists each source, how it asks to be credited, a link to its terms, and a dated copy of those terms that we keep.

How current is it?

The top of every page says when the newest data point is dated and when the site was last updated. The numbers reach us on each source's own schedule: some are published daily, some weekly, most monthly, a few quarterly or yearly. A number that looks old is usually one that its source has not published again yet. Latest data point: 2026-10-07. Site updated: 2026-10-09.

What we do to the numbers

Most figures are shown exactly as published. We never estimate, smooth or fill in a missing value: a gap in the source is a gap on the chart. The few things we compute are:

• The one-scale chart. Each number is divided by its own value on the start date and multiplied by 100, so different kinds of numbers can share a chart. Above 100 means higher than at the start.
• Inflation adjustment (optional switch). Dollar amounts are scaled by the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers, U.S. city average (BLS), to the latest month.
• Do they move together? The match score is a standard correlation between monthly averages of two numbers (or yearly averages, when two numbers share fewer than 12 months), once for the levels and once for year-over-year changes. It describes what happened and does not show that one thing caused another.
• Misery index. The unemployment rate plus the 12-month inflation rate.
• Last-12-month totals for federal revenue, spending and the deficit, and for executive orders signed.
• Adding up and taking apart. Some totals are sums we make from the source's own pieces: state internet connections added up from the FCC's county figures, FEMA aid added across its three programs, FDIC bank figures added across commercial banks and savings institutions. Some pieces are the total minus the parts the source lists, such as “all other and unknown” vehicle makes, and the “everything else” and “all other places” bands in “How it breaks down”.
• Shares and averages from Census tables. Percentages and average commute times from the American Community Survey are worked out from the Census Bureau’s own table counts.
• FBI national crime rates for 2017 to 2020. The FBI’s estimates file lists only the 50 states and DC for those four years, so the national rate is their counts added up and divided by their population. In every other year this gives the FBI’s own national figure.
• Company fourth quarters. When a company reports only a full year, its fourth quarter is the full year minus the first three quarters, all as first reported.
• Units and dates. We convert units so numbers can be compared (for example, thousands of dollars to billions), and date yearly figures at July 1 and monthly figures at the first of the month.

We combine many sources

The point of this site is to put numbers from different agencies side by side. To do that we convert units, line up dates, and add up pieces, such as counties into states. We check these steps, but with this many sources we will sometimes get one wrong. If a number looks off, especially next to another chart, please tell us. We will check it against the agency’s own figure, fix it, and log the fix on the Corrections page.

What the numbers do not say

• Crime, hate crime and arrest figures are what police agencies reported to the FBI. Not every agency reports every year, and the FBI's switch to a new reporting system in 2021 lowered participation that year. A rise can reflect more reporting as well as more crime, and the FBI cautions against ranking places from these figures.
• Border encounters count each time someone was stopped, caught or turned away. They are not a count of everyone who crossed, and the same person can be counted more than once. People entering legally are counted separately, under travelers.
• Seizures, assaults and use-of-force numbers reflect what was found or reported, and move with enforcement activity as well as with what is happening.
• Sources revise past figures from time to time, so a number you saw earlier may change.

No ads, and very little tracking

There are no ads. See the privacy page for exactly what is and is not collected.

Found a mistake?

Please tell us. See how corrections work or get in touch.

Citing this site

If you quote a chart, please credit the agency or agencies that publish your numbers, and say when you got them. A suggested form: “HowIsTheUSDoing (https://howistheusdoing.pages.dev), using data from [the agency named for your number], accessed [today’s date].” For example: “HowIsTheUSDoing (https://howistheusdoing.pages.dev), using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed 2026-10-09.” The chart builder writes this for you, with the right agencies and today’s date, under every chart.