USAFacts Financial Analysis Methodology
USAFacts strives to present data directly from government sources so people can decide for themselves if the country is going in the right direction. Our reports and data on government finances frequently rely upon advanced data analysis.
Transparency is one of our core principles at USAFacts; this page summarizes the methodologies we use to determine statistics on government revenue, spending, and debt, as well as on family and individual income and taxes.
Citations in articles, reports, and data visualizations always note when a source is USAFacts’ technical analysis of government data.
Revenue and Spending
USAFacts bases its data on government revenue and expenditures (spending) on data from the Office of Management and Budget, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Each publishes data annually, although due to collection times, state and local government data are not as current as federal data.
We show government spending through two lenses:
Spending by mission: We align programs and functions with the four constitutional missions outlined in the Constitution's preamble.
- Establish Justice and Ensure Domestic Tranquility
- Provide for the Common Defense
- Promote the General Welfare
- Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity
Spending by function: We also show spending by categories such as compensation for current and past employees, capital expenditures, interest on the debt, and payments for goods and services.
Please read the methodologies linked below for more detail:
- Download revenue methodology
- Download spending by mission methodology
- Download spending by function methodology
Balance Sheets
USAFacts constructs government balance sheets used in our government 10-K report using data from the Treasury Department’s Financial Report of the United States and the Federal Reserve’s Financial Accounts of the United States. The Federal Reserve releases quarterly data on the flow of funds, balance sheets, and integrated macroeconomic accounts. This is also known as Z1 data.
- Download the balance sheets methodology to learn more.
Families and Individuals
USAFacts produces data on how key economic and demographic statistics vary according to market income, family types, and age group. We develop this data using microdata from the Current Population Survey March Supplement (CPS) issued by the Census Bureau and the Public Use File issued by the Internal Revenue Service’s Statistics of Income Division. The CPS is a sample of households representing
