How much does the U.S. federal government spend, and where does the money go? Which states are growing fastest? These sound like straightforward questions, but answering them can mean digging through government reports and spreadsheets. USAFacts offers a starting point.

What Is USAFacts?

USAFacts is a free, nonpartisan civic data website founded in 2017 by Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft. It draws on publicly available U.S. government data and presents it through charts, tables, and plain-language explanations. Ballmer privately funds the initiative.

What Can You Find There?

The federal budget is a good place to start. USAFacts shows how much the government collects, where that revenue comes from, and what it spends money on. Seeing revenue and spending together makes it easier to understand how the annual deficit is calculated. Explore the federal budget.

The population pages give you a different way to explore. You can start by asking whether the U.S. population is growing, then look at how growth varies from state to state. A national figure can tell you the direction the country is moving, while the state figures show how uneven that change can be. Explore U.S. population trends.

Where Do the Numbers Come From?

USAFacts draws its figures from government sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau. It also standardizes some data and does its own analysis to make comparisons easier. On the population page, for example, the methodology and source sections identify the Census Bureau program behind the estimates. If you plan to cite a figure or compare it with one you saw elsewhere, check the period it covers, how it was measured, and whether the agency has revised it. Read about USAFacts’ data and methods.

Start With One Question

The next time you see a headline about government spending or population growth, try looking up the figure on USAFacts. Then look at the chart around it. What happened in previous years? Does the national trend also show up at the state level? A single number might answer your first question. Seeing it in context can give you a better second one.