What America Counts Screensaver
The What America Counts screensaver shows the US Census Bureau's dataset catalogue, key-less. 1,795 datasets, and the striking part is the reach: a Current Population Survey file from January 1990 is in the same catalogue as one published this year and still downloadable. The coverage period is null on a good many records, so the modified date carries the ordering instead. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the What America Counts screensaver works
The saver reads the source described above and draws it on a canvas — no account, no tracking.
The US Census Bureau's dataset catalogue, key-less. 1,795 datasets, and the striking part is the reach: a Current Population Survey file from January 1990 is in the same catalogue as one published this year and still downloadable. The coverage period is null on a good many records, so the modified date carries the ordering instead.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
A catalogue that keeps old data alive
The US Census Bureau is best known for the population count the Constitution requires every ten years, but it also runs many other programmes. The American Community Survey is an ongoing survey that provides information every year on topics such as jobs, education and housing, and the Current Population Survey, which the Bureau conducts for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the primary source of monthly labour-force statistics. Each programme produces datasets of its own.
Federal agencies describe their datasets in a standard machine-readable catalogue, a data.json file following the DCAT-US schema developed for federal open-data policy. In that schema modified is a required field giving the most recent date the dataset was changed, while temporal is required only if applicable and gives the span of time the data applies to. A modified date therefore marks when the listing or data last changed, not when the original survey was taken.
The catalogue is a list of what exists, not the numbers themselves. The title and dates tell you a dataset is there, but its files, documentation and tables live elsewhere, and survey data come with their own methodology and margins of error. Because the coverage field is only filled in where it applies, many records leave it out, and the same programme can appear several times for different years.
A worked example
The US Census Bureau's dataset catalogue, key-less. 1,795 datasets, and the striking part is the reach: a Current Population Survey file from January 1990 is in the same catalogue as one published this year and still downloadable. The coverage period is null on a good many records, so the modified date carries the ordering instead.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Every value on screen comes from the live source — nothing is simulated.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the source named on this page and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes, and it runs entirely in your browser.
- What is the difference between the Census and the American Community Survey?
- The decennial census counts the population every ten years, while the American Community Survey is an ongoing survey that provides information on a yearly basis.
- Why is a modified date different from a coverage period?
- The modified date says when the record or data was last changed, while the coverage (temporal) period says what span of time the data describes.