Census of Governments
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2012 Census of Governments
The Census of Governments identifies the scope and nature of the nation's state and local government sector; provides authoritative benchmark figures of public finance and public employment; classifies local government organizations, powers, and activities; and measures federal, state, and local fiscal relationships.
The data are available by:
- level of government (state, local, or state and local combined),
- type of government (state, county, city, township, special district, school district), and
- category of governmental activity (more about governmental activities).
Lists & Structure of Governments
Preliminary Count of Local Governments by Type and State: 2012 PDF [13KB] | Excel [41KB] Government Units by State: Census Years 1942 to 2012 (includes preliminary 2012 data) PDF [10KB] | Excel [33KB] Upcoming data releases from the Census of Governments: Organization [PDF, 186KB] Descriptions by state of how governments are organized will be available September 2013. 2007 Individual State Descriptions [PDF, 4.4MB] |
Click map to view Lists and Structure of Governments |
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Government Employment & Payroll
The Employment component was mailed March 2012 to collect information on the number of state and local government civilian employees and their payrolls.
Statistics on the number of federal, state, and local government civilian employees and their gross payrolls will be available late 2013.
Government Finance
The Finance component will mail beginning September 2012 collecting information on revenues, expenditures, assets, debt, and pensions.
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Revenue, spending, assets, and debt for:
- State governments only will be available late 2013.
- All governments within the state, including local governments will be available late 2014.
- Public school finance data will be available late 2014.
- Government employee pensions:
- State governments only will be available mid 2013.
- State and Local government pensions will be available early 2014.
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