Census Project

The 2020 Census is right around the corner. The information it collects will have substantial and lasting impacts on the nation’s governance and economy. In particular, data derived from the decennial census are used by the federal and state governments to guide where public funds are allocated. A lot of funds. Census-derived data are used to annually distribute approximately $900 billion to states, counties, cities, and households.

To ensure that each community receives its fair share of federal funds, an accurate 2020 Census is necessary. We studied five key census-guided federal programs important to local communities. While these five programs represent a fraction of total census-guided assistance, their use of census data allows for clear tracking of funds to specific areas.  

Click here to learn more about these five programs.

How Does This Affect Your Community?

So that communities can better understand the ways their federal program funds are guided by census data, these briefs describe how funds from five key census-guided federal programs are allocated in each state. 

Select your state from the list below to get detailed tables on how millions in federal spending from these five programs are distributed to local counties and cities.

This data is provided by the Project On Government Oversight in partnership with the George Washington Institute of Public Policy at The George Washington University. Data research assistance was provided by POGO intern Lilian Cason. For further information, please contact Sean Moulton at [email protected] or Andrew Reamer at [email protected].