Budget Matters Blog

Category: Transparency & Data


Announcing Per Capita Spending Data

We’re happy to announce that our expenditure datasets now include per capita numbers. In other words, you can see the amount of money spent for each person who lives in a state or county. Why is this important? Below is a map of federal food stamp spending in FY 2010. ...

Data Story: LIHEAP and Sequestration

Our latest data story focuses on LIHEAP, one of many programs that would see reduced funding if sequestration goes into effect.


Data Story: Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

This data story compares the health insurance coverage rate of children under 18 and adults in the 18 to 64-year-old category.


Updated Data: Health Insurance Coverage

Health insurance coverage data has been updated. The Children's Health Insurance and People's Health Insurance datasets are now current through 2010.


Updated Data: Population

We've updated our state and county population numbers to reflect the recent 2000-2010 intercensal estimates published by the Census Bureau.


Thanks, EPI, for adding some sense to the world

This week the Economic Policy Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary. We at National Priorities Project want to thank EPI for a quarter century of service, and for things like this chart, from the recent EPI report on income inequality: This chart is a unique- and telling- way of examining the ...

A bug fix, a usability fix, and a grammar fix

We fixed county-level data downloads, added state names to the county data pages, and changed some wording to appease the grammar nerds.


Data Story: Jobs and Department of Defense Procurement

This data story explores the relationship between Department of Defense procurement spending and unemployment rates.


Money Out—Also, Money In

There’s so much talk these days about federal deficits and cutting spending. So we at NPP thought it would be good to talk about tax revenues—the other half of the budget picture—and not just about spending (For some background on how the budget works, check out the People’s Guide to ...

Data Story: Food Insecurity and Food Stamps

Between 2008 and 2010, the percentage of food insecure households remained flat at 14.5% while the amount of money the federal government spent on the food stamp program rose 83%.