(USAFacts chart)

USAFacts this week released its yearly roundup of U.S. stats ahead of President Biden’s annual State of the Union address on Feb. 7.

The “State of the Union in Numbers” acts as a fact-checking tool for Americans to evaluate the claims made in the president’s speech and the opposing party’s response.

The idea is to “let people make a judgment for themselves,” said Poppy MacDonald, president of USAFacts, in an interview with GeekWire this week.

“Is what they heard from the president or from the rebuttal consistent with the numbers? And do they think we’re headed in the wrong or right direction?” MacDonald said.

This is the fourth year that the Seattle-based, non-profit, non-partisan site has released research pegged to the State of the Union.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer launched USAFacts in 2017 to provide insight into how the nation is being run. The site draws on data from more than 70 government sources and regularly crunches numbers in an effort to take the pulse and track trends in America.

Poppy MacDonald, president of USAFacts. (USAFacts Photo)

When the group first created State of the Union in Numbers, it worked with representatives from Republican Sen. Mitt Romney’s and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer’s offices to settle on metrics that would be fair to both parties.

“We really are trying to be comprehensive on all the topics the president talks about, no matter what administration,” said MacDonald, who joined USAFacts in 2018 after helping run Politico USA.

Here are some highlights shared in the new report:

Economy: While the tech sector was hit by layoffs in December and January, overall unemployment dipped to 3.5% by the end of 2022. Inflation was up 6.5% last year due to higher food, energy and housing costs. When taking inflation into account, workers’ hourly wages slid 1.7% year over year.

Crime: The number of police officers per capita dropped 6.9% between 2009 and 2021 — but that didn’t result in a spike in lawlessness, as crime rates also declined. Both violent and property crimes decreased slightly in 2021 (1.7% and 4.5%, respectively). Homicides by gunfire, however, have been on the rise since 2019.

Population: In 2021, the fertility rate rose to 56.6 births per 1,000 women, which was the first increase since 2014. The overall U.S. population increased by 0.4% in 2022 — the third lowest rate in U.S. history. And households are getting smaller: 29% of U.S. households are single adults without kids.

Environment: U.S. wildfires burned 7.6 million acres last year, more than twice the average in the 1990s. The U.S. experienced 18 natural disasters — floods, hurricanes and storms — that cost more than $1 billion in damage.

Energy: Production of natural gas, crude oil and coal all increased in 2022, though coal volumes are significantly lower than they were in 2010. U.S. per-person energy use last year was 1% lower than the 2010s average.

Spending: In fiscal year 2022, the U.S. government spent more per person than it collected ($19,434 spent per capita versus $15,098 collected). But the spending actually decreased 12.4% relative to the previous year.

So what does it all add up to? For USAFacts, that’s up to the individual to decide.

But it can be tricky to sift through the dozens of charts and numerous stats and make sense of it all. It also requires combining data from different categories when judging policy.

Take the budget and debt ceiling — a super hot topic right now. Social security makes up 19% of the nation’s $6.48 trillion in spending, and Medicare is 12%. Shaving those expenditures could save significant amounts — but the reality is the number of seniors keeps growing. The share of adults 65 and older increased by 5.5 percentage points over the past three decades.

It’s complicated, MacDonald agreed, but information helps.

“If people can ground [their understanding] back in numbers and data they will feel like they have a trusted source to go to,” she said, “even if it’s not an easy answer.”

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