science

USAFacts

USAFacts is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand USAFacts rather than just read about it. In short: USAFacts is a not-for-profit organization and website that provides data and reports on the United States population, its government's finances, and government's impact on society. It was launched in 2017.

Key takeaways

USAFacts belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect USAFacts to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of USAFacts from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

USAFacts is a not-for-profit organization and website that provides data and reports on the United States population, its government's finances, and government's impact on society. It was launched in 2017.

History and background USAFacts was founded by former Microsoft CEO and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer. Ballmer invested his own money in the project. USAFacts was launched on April 18, 2017 Tax Day, with the goal of making government data about tax revenues, expenditures, and outcomes more accessible and understandable. USAFacts's platform is designed to provide information to the public about government spending and impact at all levels, from federal to local. It includes information about border apprehensions, climate, immigration, active shooters, medicare, education, military spending and opioids. It also helps entrepreneurs to figure out the best location to launch or invest in businesses. At launch, the website gathered data from over 70 government agencies and pulls data from more than 130 US government statistical databases and reports. Only official government data is included in the site. In September 2018, USAFacts launched a new Voter Center. This compares government data with the positions members of Congress state publicly and shares information about education, healthcare, tariffs, jobs, immigration, economy, guns, etc. Partners of the Vote Center are Countable, BallotReady and TurboVote. In November 2018, USAFacts partnered with GeekWire, to produce the podcast Numbers Geek. In October 2019, USAFacts linked up with U.S. News & World Report. This provided an outlet to share their data in visual form and in the context of the relevant daily matters to and at the same time increasing U.S. News' 2020 election coverage. In November 2019, USAFacts in cooperation with AP-Norc, conducted a poll which showed that more than 50% of Americans glean their government-related news from social media, while only 11% would trust its correctness and 64% saw it as untrustworthy information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, USAFacts launched its USAFacts COVID-19 impact and Recovery Hub. It uses information of government sources, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Department of Labor. On March 20, 2020, USAFacts announced its COVID-19 Hub and Map which gave a frequently updated metrics on the daily spread and effect of COVID-19 throughout the U.S. In 2020, USAFacts partnered with the global nonprofit Earth Day Network. President Poppy MacDonald testified in front of the United States House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in an October 2021 hearing called Strengthening the Lawmaking Process: How Data Can Inform and Improve Policy. She urged the government for datasets that are timely, contextual and relevant to Americans, and talked about the need for more cross-agency and cross-government collaboration.

Awards and recognition In May 2020, USAFacts won the 2020 Webby Award for Government & Civil Innovation in the category Web. In August 2021, Fast Company named USAFacts 14th on its third-annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list.

See also Analytics.usa.gov – Monitor for website traffic in the US federal government Bureau of Justice Statistics – U.S. criminal justice data agency Bureau of Labor Statistics – US government agency Data.gov – American federal open data platform Data USA – American data website E-government – Government utilizing electronic services Open data – Openly accessible data United States Census Bureau – U.S. agency responsible for the census related statistics USA.gov – Official web-site portal for the United States government

References

External links Official website "CEO Conversation with Steve Ballmer and Patrick Steel" by Politico (2018)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with USAFacts

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what USAFacts claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to USAFacts before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about USAFacts ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of USAFacts

In research: USAFacts appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses USAFacts in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: USAFacts is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American political websites, Demography, Fact-checking websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for USAFacts outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study USAFacts in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what USAFacts means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain USAFacts out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is USAFacts in simple terms?

Why does USAFacts matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study USAFacts?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on USAFacts.