On-Line Help

Help for Select States

Overview

DQS allows you to view aggregate data by state or for the entire United States as one observation. When a single state or the "United State" observation is selected, DQS will output the total of the selected variables (e.g., Total Revenues) for that observation. Not all types of local government exist in every state.

Notes for Use

Hightlight states from left box (hold ctrl to select more than one at a time) and click on Add >> to select states for analysis. Highlight states in right box and click << Remove to deselect states.

Example: When "United States" is selected on this page, "State and Local" selected on the "Select Level" page, and "Total Revenue" selected on the "Select Series" page, DQS will output the sum of Total Revenues for all state and local governments in the entire US.

Additionally, you may use the provided buttons to automatically select all the states in a Census Region or Division.

Example: Pressing "Pacific" will automatically move Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington into the right box.

Data Availability

For some years, local government totals for counties, municipalities, townships, and school and special districts are available for the US-level data but not for individual states. These tables show which levels are available for which years.

WARNING: FY 2003 and 2001 data for US Total of municipalities also includes townships.

Technical Notes

For a listing of Census Region and Division designations, see http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf.

The Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual provides definitions for the different local governments in Chapter 3.1 - The Government Entity .

"Government services are provided through a complex structure made up of numerous public bodies and agencies. The Census Bureau identified 87,504 governments during the 1997 Census of Governments. In addition to the Federal Government and the 50 state governments, the Bureau recognizes five basic types of local governments, as follows (per 1997 Census):

• County Governments (3,043), which exist in all states except Connecticut and Rhode Island and in the District of Columbia, are created to provide general government activities in specified geographic areas. They include entities called boroughs in Alaska, parishes in Louisiana, and counties in all other states.
• Municipal Governments (19,372), which are established to provide general government services for a specific population concentration in a defined area. They include cities, boroughs (except in Alaska), villages, and towns (except in the six New England states, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin). Composite city-county governments are treated as municipal governments for Census Bureau purposes.
• Township Governments (16,629), which are established to provide general government services for areas without regard to population concentrations. They include towns in the six New England states, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin, and townships in eleven other states.
• Special District Governments (34,683), which are established to provide only one or a limited number of designated functions and having sufficient administrative and fiscal autonomy to qualify as independent governments.
• School District Governments (13,726), which are created to provide public elementary, secondary, and/or higher education and having sufficient administrative and fiscal autonomy to qualify as independent governments. They exclude school systems that are "dependent" on a county, municipal, township, or state government."

Additional information is available from Chapter 3.1 on -

• the definition of a government entity ,
• a dependent agencies checklist ,
• the parent government concept , and
• the joint activities of government .

Sources

1. Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual, http://www.census.gov/govs/www/class.html .
2. U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances and Census of Governments (1977-2004).