Plus, data on vehicle traffic, vaccinations and more.

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** How many dogs work for the government?
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Dogs are not just beloved pets — they’re also key to many federal tasks like sniffing out dangers or finding missing persons. Thousands of canines serve in departments such as Homeland Security and Defense, with roles ranging from explosive detection to search and rescue. Here’s the data ([link removed]) on these skilled, furry professionals.
* About 5,600 dogs worked for the federal government in February 2022. Nearly all of them (5,159) worked for 40 federal programs across eight departments and three independent agencies. Another 421 were contractors.
* Most government-employed dogs worked for the Department of Homeland Security (2,943 dogs), the Defense Department (1,808), the State Department (204), and the Agriculture Department (148).

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* Twenty-six government programs use dogs to identify explosives, radiological materials, and nuclear weapons. Other jobs include narcotics detection, patrolling, and tracking missing people.
* The Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 18 issues critical to the health and welfare of working dogs, including inadequate housing, limited medical care, and poor planning for retiring older dogs. The GAO also says 32 of the 40 federally managed working dog programs had policies addressing at least 13 of these issues.

See the dog breeds most commonly used in government work in this article ([link removed]) .


** How much are Americans driving?
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Vehicle miles traveled on the nation’s roads are almost back to pre-pandemic levels. COVID-19 had a noticeable effect on road usage, especially during lockdowns in 2020. Where and how is traffic changing ([link removed]) ?
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* Vehicle miles traveled fell by 11% in 2020 to 2.9 trillion, down from 3.26 trillion a year prior. By 2022, miles had climbed to 3.17 trillion.
* Rhode Island, Texas, North Dakota, and California had the largest increases in vehicle traffic from August 2022 to August 2023.
* Over the first eight months of 2023, the nation’s city streets were some of the busiest, with nearly 1.48 trillion vehicle miles traveled. People traveled rural interstates the least: 179.3 billion miles.

See more on this trend at USAFacts ([link removed]) .


** Data behind the news
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Antisemitic hate crimes have spiked in the United States following the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7. Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating if the recent shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont was a hate crime. USAFacts has historical metrics on hate crime ([link removed]) incidents regarding religion, race, sexuality, and other factors.

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** One last fact
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In the 2019–2020 school year, 95% of children received vaccinations ([link removed]) for MMR, DTaP, polio, and varicella. The next school year, that decreased to 94%. It decreased again in 2021–2022 to 93%. Alaska, West Virginia, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Georgia had some of the lowest vaccination rates for children.
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