For journalists

Everything on this site is built from free, public U.S. government data, and every figure carries the agency that published it and the date the data refers to. You are welcome to quote it.

Can I use it?

Yes. The underlying data is public domain U.S. government work and we add no restriction. Our compilation, calculators and explanations are offered under CC BY 4.0. Please credit the originating agency alongside this site — every page carries a ready-made citation in APA, MLA, Chicago and BibTeX.

Four caveats worth knowing

These are on the pages too, but they are the ones that turn a correct figure into a wrong sentence if they get dropped:

• Some figures are statewide, not city-level. BEA regional price parities and EIA utility costs are published per state and apply to every city in it. They are labelled “State statewide” wherever they appear. Two cities in one state will show the same number — that is the data, not a bug.
• Census figures are survey estimates. ACS is a sample, so each figure carries a margin of error at 90% confidence, shown as ± next to the value. A margin that is a large share of the estimate is flagged on the page.
• Tax years differ between federal and state. Federal brackets are tax year 2026; most state schedules are still 2024, and each state page is titled with its own year. A take-home figure combines the two and is labelled with the older.
• State income tax is close, not exact. The calculator applies each state's own bracket schedule and, where we hold a sourced figure, that state's standard deduction. Credits, personal exemptions and income-based phase-outs are not modelled, and states without a sourced schedule fall back to an effective-rate estimate that is labelled as one. Each state page states which applies to it, so check the page rather than assuming.

Downloads

Per-city CSV, with the source and vintage on every row: the data page. Full provenance, refresh cadence and the next expected release for each source: sources. How each number is computed: methodology.

Who maintains it

Ibrar Khan. There is no newsroom and no second reviewer — the byline says so rather than implying an editorial board that does not exist. For a correction, a figure you cannot reproduce, or a question about methodology, email [email protected]; corrections get priority over everything else.

Current sources: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.