We worry about having the most recent data so you don’t have to.

 

There are really three distinct streams to our news feed. The first are the tried and true layers, like the American Community Survey or the Census of Agriculture – these layers are collected consistently without much variation in indicators and attributes from year to year, which make their updates critical for tracking progress on certain metrics, making solid comparisons, and doing quality needs assessments. The second are the new data items – these are data that didn’t exist before or maybe have changed significantly from their original iteration. These are timely data that get released in response to a major social need – think opioid claims, COVID-19 hospitalizations, evictions. New data aren’t necessarily on a regularly scheduled update cycle, maybe limited in their geographic availability, and may only serve specific purposes related to assessment and evaluation. Finally, the third stream are corrections. No data source is perfect and some data sources, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, has a regular cycle for corrections to unemployment.