Breaking: The USAFacts 2019 Annual Report

Do you like to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in government? Want to better understand both macro and micro trends in our society, from government spending to education to healthcare? And readily participate in thoughtful discourse and debate about the critical issues impacting Americans each and every day? If this sounds like you, read on! You won’t want to miss this.

Our partners at USAFacts, a not-for-profit, non-partisan resource to help inform active citizenship and fact-based debate, have just released their 2019 Annual Report, breaking down the latest data regarding government finances, outcomes of government programs, population trends, and more. This trove of data puts people first, and features descriptive details and visuals to highlight some of the remarkable trends of the past year. And, it’s all actionable!

To get a better sense of what’s in their jam-packed report and how they’ve approached this year's deep dive into the federal government's books, we sat down to discuss the 2019 annual report with the USAFacts team.

Q1: At a high level, can you tell us why you’re excited about this year’s annual report?

A1: We’ve been doing this for a few years now, and we’ve learned something new every year we’ve gone through the annual report process. The first year was just about the data, and providing an interesting way to see things. Last year was more narrative based. This year is about people. The report looks at the state of people living in the U.S., and how we’re doing as a society. That’s what’s most exciting to us from a content standpoint.

We’re also excited about making the report actionable for the first time. Our hope is that we can give people a meaningful way to engage in public discourse and debate based on the trends revealed by the data.

Q2: Which finding or trend most surprised you about this year’s report?

A2: There were so many! One terrible trend that surprised us was that deaths from cocaine and meth were rising at a faster rate than deaths from opioids. We were also surprised by government spending trends — at a macro level, we found that 86% of government spending goes into only 8 areas (Social Security, National Defense, Medicare, etc.), leaving very little to spend on other programs.

On a more specific level, we were fascinated by the changing trends around education. We found increases in spending, the number of students going to college, and also 8th grade levels of proficiency. On a separate note, population changes in the last year were remarkable. It’s fascinating to think that back in 1990 almost three-fourths of the population growth came from births and deaths, and today it’s almost fifty-fifty with immigration.

Q3: What was the most challenging issue to research in this year’s report?

A3: The data that caused the most problems was around health programs. Medicaid is oftentimes the hardest for us to track — there’s so much out there and it can be hard to figure out what’s right. Defense numbers are also tricky, as some have stopped being produced in recent years, and there’s also not a lot of data available on unauthorized populations in the U.S. 

Crime is also a constant struggle. We want to see more than simply who is in jail, we actually want to see how they flow through the system — who gets arrested, who goes to jail, who gets out, who goes back, and so forth. It’s not always a clear picture. Another interesting challenge this year was actually due to the government shutdown. A lot of data was delayed; details on GDP and trade, for example, came out much later than usual.

Q4: Walk us through your research process?

A4: The major thing for us is framing the report, and deciding what we want to talk about and how. This year, we decided on a human-centric approach, so we divided the sections based on that idea and looked at major inputs and outputs. We also looked at big changes over the past year, and the key issues that are in the news to help frame our report.

From there, we go through to make sure we’re pulling the most recent and relevant data. This can be challenging because different programs will frequently offer different conclusions, and government agencies don’t all publish uniform metrics. We work with a group of academics as well as people in government to make sure that the data is all accurate, and then go back and forth with designers to create clear and compelling visuals before tying it all together in the final report.

Q5: Which public policy issue covered in the report do you think Americans can begin moving the needle on?

A5: We’ll see! Part of the reason we wanted to make this report actionable was to see where Americans think they can and should make a change by giving them the facts and letting them run with it. If we do our jobs well, people will have the information and tools they need, and we’ll see how people decide to take action.

Q6: How do you hope readers will use this data and make what they’ve learned actionable?

A6: We hope people use the data when they debate and come to policy decisions. Hopefully Americans will use the data to inform how they vote, and how they debate on social media and with their family and friends. We also hope that Congress and people in government use the data to make their decisions, and that people can leverage it in their jobs or in school. We want everyone to consume, share, and engage, hold thoughtful discussions and debates, and make decisions based on data.

Generating data-driven annual reports of this magnitude is a big, hairy beast, and USAFacts, Countable, and everyone involved in processes like this one are still figuring out how best to tame it. USAFacts encourages everyone to check out the report directly, visit www.usafacts.org for additional context , and let them know what you think. What’s helpful, what’s not helpful. They really do want to hear it all.