About the Government Units Survey (2024)

The Government Units Survey (GUS) is a part of the organizational component of the Census of Governments. The GUS is designed to collect information on the location and type of local governments and offices.

The Individual State Descriptions provides information about the organization of state and local governments. There is a separate summary for each state and the District of Columbia. The summaries are divided according to the five basic types of local governments. The Census Bureau established these five types for classifying government units— county, municipal, township, special district, and school district governments.

Local governments in the United States are covered in the Government Units Survey. Local governments include:

• Counties
• Cities
• Townships
• Special districts (such as water districts, fire districts, library districts, mosquito abatement districts, and so on)
• School districts
  

Government Organization includes:

• The number of activegovernments by type and by state
• Descriptions of the responsibilities and authority of local governments in each state
  

The data released in Summer 2023 willincludethe local government counts from the 2021 Government Units Survey (GUS). The 2022 Individual State Descriptions report will be available in Spring 2024.

Public releases in a Census year include electronic files and Internet tables:

• Individual State Descriptions
• 11 tables providing local government counts including data obtained from the 2021 Government Units Survey (GUS)
  
• 2022 Governments Master Address File - list of all governments in the United States

Two federal statistical agencies–the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Federal Reserve Board–use the data to measure the nation's economic and financial performance. State and local governments use the data to develop programs and budgets, assess financial conditions, and perform comparative analyses.
In addition, analysts, economists, market specialists, and researchers need these data to measure the changing characteristics of the government sector of the economy and to conduct public policy research. Journalists report on, and teachers and students learn about, their governments' activities using our data. Internally, the Census Bureau uses these data as a benchmark for all our non-census year samples.

The Census of Governments provides the only source of periodic information that identifies and describes all units of government in the U.S. The Census uses nationally consistent definitions and classifications for the types of governments and for their activities.

The population of interest, data collection, data processing, and data quality, are available atHow the Data are Collected.

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