To be a leading democracy in the information age means producing objective, independent, scientifically grounded, and widely shared quality information on where we are and where we are going, on both an absolute and relative basis, including comparisons to other nations.
David Walker, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation / Former Comptroller General of the United States
What makes SUSA's website unique?
The State of the USA (SUSA) will seek to address the void between online searches and professional-quality research. Search engines offer rapid access to relevant sources, but cannot yet guide users effectively past the first results. First-class research can produce high-quality answers to sophisticated questions; but it can take weeks, months or years to complete. SUSA’s website will provide the best available information to help its users answer their questions in minutes or hours—and at no cost.
SUSA will focus on displaying reliable, objective data to measure conditions in the United States; and it will seek to support, rather than compete with, existing information providers. It will address relevant issues, but not set goals. It will assemble information, not collect it. It will display data, but not interpret them. And it will concentrate on quantitative information, with supporting explanations and context that will make the measures easy to use and understand.
SUSA’s website will also work to ensure the quality of the indicators and data on its website and will provide user-friendly, credible commentary about those indicators. This information will include sources of the data, details about how the data were collected, definitions of key concepts, tips on data use or misuse and any known limitations of the data. In this way, SUSA will educate website users about the quality and objectivity of its measures so the public can become more informed consumers of data.