To find solutions to national challenges, everyone — from everyday Americans to top policymakers — needs clear, nonpartisan data to understand how the government is serving the people.
This week, the USAFacts team is in Washington, DC, sharing the comprehensive America in Facts 2025: A Data-Driven Report for Congress report with lawmakers. Because no matter which side of the aisle you're on, you need solid data as a starting point for policy. |
|
This annual report is the result of years of interactions and conversations with Congressmembers and staffers. The final product: Nearly 100 pages of clear, accessible government data. What’s in the report? Here’s a fact-filled preview:
What the government spends
- The federal budget has three types of spending: mandatory, discretionary, and paying interest on the debt. Mandatory spending must be funded as the law requires, unless Congress changes the rules or laws regarding the programs themselves.
|
|
- Of the $4.1 trillion in mandatory spending in FY 2024, the largest program was Social Security, accounting for 35%, or at $1.5 trillion.
- Medicare accounted for $865.3 billion, or 21% of mandatory spending. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program spending reached $637.7 billion, or 16%.
|
|
- Congress can alter discretionary spending each year through the appropriations process. These changes are often due to shifting national priorities. In FY 2024, discretionary spending comprised 27% (or $1.8 trillion) of the budget overall.
- National defense was the largest category at $850.7 billion or 47% of discretionary expenditures.
- The government pays debt interest in the same way someone pays interest on a credit card bill. These payments change based on the size of the debt and interest rates. In FY 2024, the government spent $879.9 billion in debt interest. That’s equivalent to 13% of total government spending, the highest share spent on debt interest since 1999.
- The total debt owed by the federal government reached $36.2 trillion by the end of 2024. About 80% of the debt was owned by the public, meaning individuals, businesses, banks, the Federal Reserve, and foreign entities.
|
|
Immigration
- About 2.9 million authorized immigrants entered the US in FY 2023, up 15% from FY 2022. That’s the highest number of authorized immigrants since at least 1997.
- Refugee admissions reached 100,000 in FY 2024, the most since at least 2001.
- There were 3.9 million pending immigration court cases in FY 2024, the highest on record.
- Afghan Asylees have increased after the US withdrawal: 110 asylees in FY 2021 to 1,240 in FY 2022 to 14,470 in FY 2023. That's the most of any country, nearly triple the number of asylees from second-place China.
- After you read America in Facts, be sure to watch this video for even more on immigration.
|
|
The border
- The US removed about 330,000 people in FY 2024, up 86% from the year before.
- There were 2.9 million border enforcement actions in FY 2024, which counts people refused at ports of entry and apprehended for illegal crossing, down from a record high of 3.2 million in FY 2023. About 2.1 million, or 74%, happened along the southwest border.
|
|
- US Border Patrol (USBP) and the Office of Field Operations (OFO) performed about 25,000 enforcement actions in June 2025, down 88% from June 2024. And enforcement action can be either an encounter with USBP between legal ports of entry or being turned away from legal points of entry by OFO.
- Another 15% of enforcement actions occurred at airports, 7% at the northern border, and 4% at coastal borders.
|
|
Wages
- The nation’s median annual wage was $49,440 in 2024.
|
|
- Massachusetts, Washington, and Alaska had the highest median wages, each over $59,000.
- Six states — Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Oklahoma — had median wages under $44,000.
- After adjusting for inflation, median wages decreased by 0.3% from 2023 to 2024, following declines in the two previous years.
|
|
Explore the full report
That’s just the start. America in Facts has more on these topics, plus deep dives into the American population, tax data, and poverty rates, and dozens of visuals to back them up.
Explore the report we made for Congress right here. |
|
USAFacts goes to Washington |
|
While USAFacts will be talking data in the halls of Congress this week, we’ll also be on the grounds of the Washington Monument, bringing facts to the people. If you’re in the area on September 18, you could snag a copy of America in Facts, or maybe a USAFacts shirt to rep your favorite source of nonpartisan data. We'll be hanging out by something so big you might say it’s...inflated. |
|
We’ve noticed an uptick in search interest in our data on Utah crime rates and deaths from gun deaths in Utah following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We have those numbers, plus numbers for every other state, on our site. On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office released new economic projections for the next three years. The projections are an update to the outlook it had released in January. These projections include a rising inflation rate. |
|
Federal spending rose 2.9 times from FY 1980 to FY 2024 (after adjusting for inflation).
Want to see how government revenue has changed since then? America in Facts has you covered. In fact, the charts in the report are so detailed and, well, cool, that we suggest you get out of your inbox and into the data. (This nifty chart in particular is on page 7 of the federal finances section.) |
|
|
|
|
