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Updates & Corrections

We are committed to accuracy and transparency. When we discover errors in our data or methodology, we fix them and document the changes here. Government data sources also revise their published figures over time—we incorporate those revisions and note them below.

Accurate State Unemployment Data

Replaced interpolated election-year-only state unemployment data with real annual BLS data for all 50 states and DC (1976–2024).

Corrections

MetricDetail
State Unemployment RatesReplaced election-year-only data (13 data points per state, linearly interpolated for intermediate years) with real annual BLS LAUS data (49 data points per state). The previous interpolation produced inaccurate values for non-election years — e.g., California 2019 showed 7.3% instead of the actual 4.1%, because it linearly interpolated between 2016 (5.4%) and 2020 (10.2%).

New data sources

MetricDetail
BLS LAUS State UnemploymentAdded Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) as a data source — 2,499 data points (51 areas × 49 years) fetched via FRED API.
U.S. Census Bureau PopulationAdded Census Bureau as a data source for the population density map (2020 Decennial Census, Population Estimates Program, Gazetteer Files).

Consumer Price Index (CPI) Metric Added

Added Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) as a new metric, showing the absolute price level index from 1981-2024. Sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED (series CPIAUCSL). This complements the existing Inflation Rate metric by showing cumulative price changes rather than year-over-year percent changes.

New metrics

MetricDetail
Consumer Price Index (CPI)CPI-U All Items index (1982-84 = 100), annual averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. Shows the absolute price level of a basket of consumer goods and services. Coverage: 1981-2024.

Four New Metrics Added

Added four new data metrics to the site: Gas Prices, Median Household Income, Poverty Rate, and Trade Balance. All four are sourced from official government data via FRED and cover the full 1981-present timeline.

New metrics

MetricDetail
Gas PricesU.S. regular gasoline retail prices (dollars per gallon), sourced from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) via FRED. Weekly data averaged to annual values. Coverage: 1993-2025.
Median Household IncomeMedian Household Income in nominal (current-year) dollars, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey via FRED. Coverage: 1984-2023.
Poverty RateEstimated percent of people of all ages in poverty, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau via FRED. Uses the official poverty measure threshold. Coverage: 1981-2023.
Trade BalanceBalance on Goods and Services in billions of dollars, sourced from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) via FRED. Negative values indicate a trade deficit. Annual values are sums of quarterly data. Coverage: 1992-2024.

Data Refresh & Timezone Bug Fix

First automated data refresh using the FRED API. During this process, we discovered and fixed a timezone bug that had shifted several metrics by one year, corrected the employment calculation methodology, updated unit scales for debt metrics, and incorporated the latest FRED revisions across all series. We also extended all metrics with the latest available data and added Trump 2nd term entries across all categories.

New data added

MetricDetail
EmploymentAdded 2025 (+0.6%).
GDP GrowthAdded 2024 (2.8%).
Inflation (CPI)Added 2024 (2.9%).
Unemployment RateAdded 2025 (4.3%).
Federal Funds RateAdded 2025 (4.2%) and 2026 partial-year (3.6%).
Real Median WagesAdded 2025 ($375/week).
Border EncountersUpdated 2024 estimate from 2,100K to 2,130K with final data. Added 2025 (248K) — lowest since 1970.
Deportations (Removals)Updated 2024 from 425K estimate to 271K with final data. Added 2025 (329K).
Deportations (Returns)Added 2025 (18K estimate).
Violent Crime RateUpdated 2024 from 370.0 estimate to 359.1 per 100K — lowest since 1969.
Murder RateUpdated 2024 from 4.8 estimate to 5.0 per 100K.
Trump 2nd termAdded Trump 2nd term (2025-2029) aggregations across all metrics: employment, GDP, deficit, stock market, unemployment, healthcare, wages, debt, border encounters, deportations, and crime.

Corrections

MetricDetail
All FRED-sourced metricsFixed a timezone bug where JavaScript's new Date("YYYY-01-01") was parsed as UTC midnight, causing getFullYear() to return the previous year in US timezones. All year assignments were shifted by one year for GDP, inflation, and other annual series. Switched to string-based date parsing to eliminate the issue.
Employment (Nonfarm Payrolls)Changed from January-to-January calculation to December-to-December for correct calendar year attribution. For example, 2023 employment growth now reflects Dec 2022 to Dec 2023 change. Values changed across nearly all years (e.g., 2008: -4.3% to -3.5%, 2009: -4.3% to -5.0%, 2023: 2.3% to 2.6%).
GDP GrowthAll values from 1981-2023 were shifted by one year due to the timezone bug, causing each year to display the next year's value. For example, 1981 changed from -1.8% to 2.5%, and 2000 changed from 1.0% to 4.1%.
Inflation (CPI)All values from 1981-2023 were shifted by one year due to the timezone bug. For example, 1981 changed from 6.1% to 10.3%, correcting a significant understatement of early-Reagan inflation.
Household DebtChanged from billions to millions of dollars to match FRED's native CMDEBT unit (millions). All values updated accordingly (e.g., 2024: $20,340B displayed as $20,253,029M in raw data, rendered as $20.3T on charts).
Consumer CreditChanged from billions to millions of dollars to match FRED's native HCCSDODNS unit (millions). All values updated accordingly.

FRED revisions incorporated

MetricDetail
Unemployment RateMinor revisions across most years (typically 0.1-0.2 percentage points). For example, 2008: 6.0% to 5.8%, 2020: 8.3% to 8.1%.
Federal Funds RateRevisions across many years (typically 0.1-0.3 percentage points). For example, 1981: 15.9% to 16.4%, 1991: 5.4% to 5.7%.
Real Median WagesMinor revisions (typically $1-3 differences). For example, 2008: $338 to $335, 2019: $362 to $359.
Debt Service RatioRetained existing Federal Reserve Household DSR data (1980-present, ~10-13% range) rather than switching to FRED's TDSP series which uses a different methodology and only covers 2005+.