Every number on this site, whether a wage figure, a vote count, or a court case detail, came from somewhere. We think you deserve to know where, and how we checked it. This page explains our approach: what sources we trust, how we handle numbers that change over time or get revised, and what to do if you think we got something wrong.
Our approach to sources
Most figures on this site cite their own source directly where the claim is made, in a chart, a stat card, or a footnote, so you don’t have to come here to find out where a number came from. This page is not a complete source directory. It explains the approach, and calls out the handful of major, recurring sources used across many claims (inflation is the clearest example, below).
We prioritize:
- Primary, official sources where they exist: government agencies (BLS, Census, Congress.gov, Federal Reserve banks, GovInfo), court records, and official election results, rather than secondhand reporting of the same numbers.
- Transparent, documented sources when no official government figure exists: research organizations that publish their methods and underlying data (like the Economic Policy Institute’s wage analyses), not just a headline number with no visible math behind it.
- One consistent source for each recurring type of figure, rather than a different source every time. For example, every conversion into today’s dollars on this site uses the same inflation series, so two pages never silently assume two different inflation rates for the same year.
Example: how we handle inflation
Whenever a figure on this site is adjusted for inflation, the chart or claim says so directly, naming where the underlying figures came from and that they have been adjusted. That adjustment always comes from the same source across the whole site: the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’s Consumer Price Index series, which tracks consumer prices back to 1800. Data before 1913 is labeled as a historical estimate, because it is built from older, less standardized measurements than the modern government CPI. We say so rather than presenting a 200-year-old estimate with the same confidence as this year’s numbers.
When a figure changes or gets corrected
Numbers aren’t static. An agency revises last year’s estimate, a research group adds a new year of data, or we find a better source than the one we used. When that happens:
- We update the figure and note what changed and when, rather than quietly swapping an old number for a new one.
- If a figure is tied to a specific year, such as a historical comparison, we say so explicitly, so an old snapshot doesn’t read as if it describes today.
How often we re-check a number
A figure tied to a fixed point in history, like a comparison anchored to a specific past year, doesn’t need repeat checking just because time has passed. It was accurate then and stays accurate as a historical fact. Figures tied to “the latest available data” are different. We re-check those whenever a newer year of source data is published, so a “current” number doesn’t quietly go stale.
When people disagree
Some questions have settled facts, and some have real disagreement among informed people, such as how a minimum wage increase affects employment. Where informed people disagree, we say so and attribute a claim to the person or organization making it. When a video or article presents one side of a debate, we label it as one side. We give an answer, not the only answer.
If you think we got something wrong
Tell us, and include the page and the figure you’re questioning. We’ll check it against the source and correct it if you’re right. Simply use this page to let us know!