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The United States · 2000 to today

A country. In motion.

Explore national facts over time and across presidential terms.

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The long view

Hover or tap for values · drag to zoom · arrow keys to explore
DRAG THE HANDLES TO TRAVEL THROUGH TIME2000 —

A closer look

Latest readings in your selected date range.

Sources & data status

Sources are checked daily. Releases arrive on their own schedules; the observation date shows the period measured. Economic histories come from FRED, border data from CBP, overdose deaths from CDC, and murder estimates from FBI publication tables. Mortgage history is published with Freddie Mac/FRED attribution under the PMMS archive information-use notice. Broad U.S. stock-market performance uses VTI weekly total returns from TickerInside under CC BY 4.0. Dividends are included. Returnsview supplies validated adjusted historical levels from June 2001 through October 2023; both providers are attributed. TickerInside updates after market close; only completed weekly periods enter the chart. Missing periods stay missing. Presidential bands show who held office, not what caused a change. Daily and weekly data retain their original observation dates; monthly source dates label the reference month. Death indicators default to per 100,000 residents; use the Deaths menu for totals. Murder rates use FBI published annual rates. Overdose rates use the Census monthly resident population for the ending month and are crude, not age-adjusted. Monthly murder reports remain counts because a matching population denominator is not included in this snapshot. Use the Murder data menu to switch between monthly reported counts (with population coverage in the tooltip) and annual national estimates. Annual murder estimates sit at December 31 and are drawn as separate points, without monthly interpolation. Household income is annual and inflation adjusted; full years appear as separate dots at December 31. GDP per person is quarterly, inflation adjusted and annualized; points sit at completed quarter ends. Working-age employment is the monthly share of adults ages 25–54 with a job. All three refresh from free Census/BEA/BLS data via FRED, with source revisions retained. Transition months can span two presidents; monthly observations label the reference month, not an individual day.

Gasoline

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 320 observations

  • U.S. city average retail price of regular unleaded gasoline.
  • Monthly BLS observations; not a daily pump-price feed.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

View source ↗

Eggs

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 319 observations

  • Grade A large eggs, U.S. city average.
  • Nominal retail prices; not seasonally adjusted.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

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Ground beef

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 318 observations

  • 100% ground beef, U.S. city average.
  • Nominal retail prices; not seasonally adjusted.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

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Milk

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 319 observations

  • Whole fortified milk, U.S. city average.
  • Nominal retail prices; not seasonally adjusted.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

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30-year mortgage

Freddie Mac via FRED · Weekly
2000-01-07 — 2026-10-01 · 1,396 observations

  • Freddie Mac national 30-year fixed mortgage rate (PMMS).
  • Weekly observations retained.
  • Survey methodology changed November 17, 2022.
  • Source observations are unchanged; relative chart changes are calculated by RealPulse. © Freddie Mac; retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
  • PMMS archive information-use notice permits use with proper attribution.

Latest verified observation: 2026-10-01.

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Unemployment

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-09-01 · 320 observations

  • National U-3 unemployment rate; seasonally adjusted.
  • Percentage-point changes are often more informative than relative percentage changes.

Latest verified observation: 2026-09-01.

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Murders

FBI UCR · 2021 FBI/BJS estimate · Annual national estimate
2000-12-31 — 2025-12-31 · 26 observations

  • Annual estimated murder and nonnegligent manslaughter.
  • Annual values plotted at year end; no monthly interpolation.
  • 2000–2005 from 2019 Table 1; 2006 onward from 2025 CIUS Table 1, except 2021.
  • The 2021 national modeled estimate is from FBI/BJS NIBRS Estimation Program, Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023, appendix table 2 (revised August 19, 2025).
  • It adjusts for missing agencies and reports and has wider uncertainty: 23,060 ±6,972 murders, or 6.9 ±2.10 per 100,000 (95% confidence).
  • Differences across this method change compare published point estimates; they do not establish statistical significance or presidential causation.

Latest verified observation: 2025-12-31.

  • Monthly reported homicide offenses from participating agencies (SRS + summarized NIBRS), not complete national estimates.
  • Population reporting coverage varies by month and is shown in the tooltip.
  • Reporting changes, especially the 2021 NIBRS transition and incomplete recent months, affect comparisons.
  • Downloaded October 4, 2026; FBI data as of September 15, 2026.
  • Monthly coverage through June 2026.
  • Annual estimates are available in the Murder data menu.
View source ↗

Border encounters

U.S. Customs and Border Protection · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 320 observations

  • Southwest land border, U.S. Border Patrol only (between ports of entry).
  • Events, not unique people; excludes undetected crossings and OFO encounters at ports.
  • Title 8 apprehensions before March 2020; Title 8 plus Title 42 expulsions after.
  • Definition break marked in chart.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

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Overdose deaths

CDC NCHS · Monthly • rolling 12 months
2015-01-01 — 2026-04-01 · 136 observations

  • Provisional predicted deaths (reported deaths if prediction absent), national, all drugs, rolling 12-month ending total.
  • Not deaths in one month.
  • Begins January 2015; delayed and revised.

Latest verified observation: 2026-04-01.

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U.S. stock market (VTI)

TickerInside + Returnsview · Weekly
2001-06-15 — 2026-10-02 · 1,317 observations

  • Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) total-return performance, covering large, mid-sized and small U.S. companies.
  • Historical dividend- and split-adjusted weekly period-end levels from Returnsview cover June 2001 through October 6, 2023.
  • RealPulse normalizes those observed levels to 100 on October 6, 2023, then compounds TickerInside weekly total returns (CC BY 4.0) from the same anchor.
  • This is approximate investment performance including dividends, not a share price.
  • Weekly dates label Friday-ending periods, including holiday-shortened weeks.
  • Returnsview omits ISO week 53; those observations remain missing, rather than compounding an incomplete return grid.
  • No historical values after the shared anchor are imported from Returnsview.
  • Recent weekly returns are rounded to four decimals; only completed Friday-ending releases are imported and saved history accumulates.
  • VTI launched in 2001, so no VTI values exist for 2000.
  • Sources are attributed separately; index calculation by RealPulse.

Latest verified observation: 2026-10-02.

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Inflation

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 319 observations

  • Derived: 100 × (seasonally adjusted all-items CPI / same month one year earlier − 1).
  • This is an inflation rate, not the price level.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

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Real wages

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2006-03-01 — 2026-08-01 · 245 observations

  • Derived: private-sector all-employee average hourly earnings / CPI-U × 100.
  • Both inputs seasonally adjusted.
  • Series begins March 2006; averages can change with workforce composition.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

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Rent inflation

BLS via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-08-01 · 319 observations

  • Derived year-over-year change in BLS rent-of-primary-residence CPI, seasonally adjusted.
  • Measures occupied rental housing, not new-listing rents.

Latest verified observation: 2026-08-01.

View source ↗

Military recruiting

Department of Defense / Department of War, Military Personnel Policy · Monthly
2015-10-01 — 2026-07-01 · 120 observations

  • Every point is cumulative: active-duty enlisted recruits since October divided by the combined target through that same month.
  • 100% means on plan through the reported month, not that the full annual recruiting target has been completed.
  • The September observation is the final fiscal-year result; October begins a new year.
  • Annual targets reflect planned force size and expected departures and can change.
  • Recruits and planned totals appear together; this does not measure readiness, patriotism or presidential causation.
  • Includes Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force when reported (FY2022 onward); excludes reserves, officers and Coast Guard.
  • Verified monthly history starts October 2015; unavailable or mislinked reports remain gaps.
  • Dates identify the reported month, not publication day.

Source update unavailable; last verified history retained.

View source ↗

Real household income

U.S. Census Bureau via FRED · Annual
2000-12-31 — 2025-12-31 · 26 observations

  • Median annual household money income before taxes, adjusted for inflation to a common purchasing-power basis in the latest Census release.
  • Includes income beyond wages; not take-home pay, an average, or income adjusted for household size.
  • Annual reference years are shown at December 31 as separate points, without monthly interpolation.
  • Updates annually, usually the following September; all years are refreshed together when the purchasing-power basis or estimates are revised.
  • Census survey and questionnaire changes can affect comparability; see the source historical table footnotes.

Latest verified observation: 2025-12-31.

View source ↗

Real GDP per person

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis via FRED · Quarterly
2000-03-31 — 2026-06-30 · 106 observations

  • Real gross domestic product divided by population: inflation-adjusted economic output per person, expressed at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
  • This is output, not personal income or a quarterly growth percentage.
  • Reference quarters are plotted at their completed quarter-end dates.
  • No monthly interpolation or forecasts.
  • Revisions replace the full history consistently.
  • Term changes use the last observed completed quarter before inauguration; Q1 contains the transition between administrations.

Latest verified observation: 2026-06-30.

View source ↗

Working-age adults employed

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED · Monthly
2000-01-01 — 2026-09-01 · 320 observations

  • Employed civilian noninstitutional adults ages 25–54 divided by all civilian noninstitutional adults of that age, seasonally adjusted.
  • Includes people outside the labor force in the denominator, unlike unemployment.
  • Counts people rather than payroll jobs; does not measure hours worked, job quality or pay.
  • Ages 25–54 reduce the effect of population aging and retirement.
  • Differences between observations are percentage points, never cumulative totals.
  • Population control revisions can affect comparisons.

Latest verified observation: 2026-09-01.

View source ↗

Convex checks the sources daily at 23:15 UTC. Invalid or unavailable feeds keep their last validated history. Annual FBI releases are monitored for review; archived monthly FBI reports are not automatically imported. CDC data are freely available at the linked source; CDC and the U.S. Government do not endorse RealPulse. Population-rate calculations are RealPulse derivatives. Presidential dates: U.S. House of Representatives.