ASSESSING AND MONITORING THE HEALTH OF FEDERAL STATISTICS

Additional Resources

Ongoing Monitoring Resources

Statistical agency budgets and budget requests back to FY00
Federal statistical agency staffing
Budget-to-staff ratio table
Monitoring the public’s perspectives on federal statistics with data collected monthly from NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak panel: estimates time series from June 2025 to most recent. Questionnaires: June 2025, August 2025-January 2026, July 2025; February-March 2026, April & June 2026.
Leadership of the federal statistical agencies

Updated Document Resources

Value and Uses of Federal Statistics, February 14, 2026

Podcasts, Interviews, and Webinars with the Project Team Members

Public Trust Transparency, Information, and Democratic Engagement, Connie Citro participates in a virtual panel discussion for the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table for their annual Sunshine Week, which "shines a light on the importance of public records and open government."
The Data System Behind Key US Decisions Is Losing Staff, Funding, and Trust. The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton, Federal News Network, January 7, 2026
Former US Chief Statistician Nancy Potok Talks to FNN’s Jory Heckman About a National Secure Data Service, The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton, Federal News Network
The Data We Need: The State of Federal Statistics, Practical Significance, ASA, November 3, 2025
The Nation's Data at Risk, Stats + Stories, August 15, 2024
The Nation’s Data at Risk, with Connie Citro, Farah Bostic, Crosstabs, July 31, 2024

Other Project-Related Publications by the Project Team

The Nation’s Data at Risk: The First Annual Report on the Federal Statistical System, Jonathan Auerbach et al., Harvard Data Science Review, 2024
Bolstering Education Statistics to Serve the Nation, Emerson Elliott et al., Statistics and Public Policy, 2024
Safeguarding Facts in an Era of Disinformation: The Case for Independently Monitoring the US Statistical System, Jonathan Auerbach, Harvard Data Science Review, 2023
What Protects the Autonomy of the Federal Statistical Agencies? An Assessment of the Procedures in Place to Protect the Independence and Objectivity of Official US Statistics, Constance F. Citro et al., Statistics and Public Policy, 2023
“State of the Data Infrastructure” interviews with agency experts and former leaders
- State of the Criminal Justice Data Infrastructure, April 2021
- State of the Science and Engineering Data Infrastructure: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, July 2021
- State of the Education Data Infrastructure: What Three Experts Have to Say About the National Center for Education Statistics, September 2021
- State of the Workforce Data Infrastructure, December 2021
- State of the Data Infrastructure Series: Census Bureau, February 2022
- State of the Nation’s Health Data Infrastructure: Experts Weigh in Two Years into Pandemic, March 2022
- Infrastructure Series: Challenges Loom for Chief Statistician of the US, April 2022 (includes historical timeline of the Chief Statistician position)

Other Resources

2026 JSM Presentations: Stand Up for Federal Statistics, Connie Citro. The Independence of US Federal Statistics: Strengthening the Shield, Steve Pierson.
Conference on the Independence of Official Statistics, Paris, France, June 19, 2026: The Independences of US Official Federal Statistics: A status report, Steve Pierson.
2026 DC-AAPOR Presentations: Assessing and Monitoring the Health of Federal Statistics: What, Why, What We’ve Found to Date, Connie Citro; Monitoring Federal Data Use and Trust in Federal Statistics, Zach Seeskin.
COPAFS quarterly Meeting, March, 2026: Scope, Reports, & Other Activities: Where should we go from here?, Project Team.
The Chief Statistician of the United States: Overview and Analysis, Congressional Research Service, January, 2026
The Future of National Statistics Offices, A Call to Action, Osama Rahman (executive editor), UNECE, May 2025

Access Our Reports

2026 Midyear Update: Resources and Leadership Supporting Federal Statistics, July 28, 2026
The Nation’s Data at Risk: 2025 Report, December 10, 2025
The Nation’s Data at a Crossroads, July 2025 Status Report
The Nation’s Data at Risk: 2024 Report

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Contact

Steve Pierson, spierson@amstat.org

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