kvlak / limn

A citizen's field guide to American public data

The data is public.
Now it's readable.

Editorial dashboards on the public data that runs American life. Every figure is badged for how real it is, so you never have to take our word for it.

Start here

Three dashboards built on full data ingests - a good first read.

42 live

A Field Guide to Wildlife Strikes FAA National Wildlife Strike Database A quarter-million bird and beast strikes on American aircraft, read as a field guide - who hits, where, and how high. 208,925 wildlife strikes logged Transportation & Safety 1990-2018 Full Which Hospital, Honestly CMS Hospital Care Compare U.S. hospitals ranked straight on the outcomes that matter - and the brand names those rankings don't flatter. 5,426 U.S. hospitals compared Health & Medicine Current Full What Got Filed, and by Whom USPTO A single year of American invention: who filed, in what fields, and where the work actually happens. 318,000 patents granted in 2024 Innovation & Infrastructure 2024 Curated Patents - A Deeper Reading USPTO Five years, 318,000 patents, twenty companies - the same data read closely, with trajectories and small multiples. 388,000 grants at the 2020 peak Innovation & Infrastructure 2020-2024 Curated The Government, by the People in It OPM FedScope Two point two million federal workers - who they are, where they live, and what the grades pay. 2.27M federal civilian workers Government & Education FY2024 Curated Tracker Atlas Community-sourced tracker graph The private-tracker invite network drawn as a transit map - hubs, routes, and the paths between closed doors. 603 tracker invite routes Networks Current Full What Went Wrong NTSB Aviation Accident Database Every U.S. aviation accident read as an investigation - probable cause, phase of flight, and the crashes that rewrote the rules. ~1,300 U.S. aviation accidents a year Transportation & Safety 1962-2025 Curated On Time, Honestly BTS On-Time Performance The American departures board read straight - who is punctual, which routes are late by design, and where the schedule gets padded. 75% of flights arrive on time Transportation & Safety June 2024 Full Before You Buy NHTSA Recalls & Crash Tests The vehicle recalls that actually mattered - which defects killed people, which ones dragged, and how to read a crash rating. 67M Takata inflators recalled Transportation & Safety Multi-year Curated What This College Actually Costs You U.S. Dept of Education What a degree really costs and returns - net price, debt, and the paycheck a decade later, for the schools that beat their reputations. $32,000 the diploma-wage baseline Government & Education Current Illustrative What OSHA Knows About Your Employer OSHA / DOL Enforcement Workplace-safety enforcement, named - the deadliest industries, the most-cited standards, and the employers that keep getting caught. 186 yrs to inspect every worksite once Labor & Workplace 2014-2023 Curated Who's Polluting Near You EPA ECHO Enforcement Environmental compliance facility by facility - significant noncompliance, the landmark cases, and the price of getting caught. 3.16M regulated facilities tracked Environment Current Full What They Say vs What You Get FCC Broadband Data Collection The broadband map read as a diagnostic - single-provider counties and the gap between advertised and measured speed. 24M Americans still unserved Innovation & Infrastructure 2024 Curated American Road Deaths NHTSA FARS Every fatal crash by state - the alcohol, pedestrian, and nighttime patterns behind the toll, and who is trending worse. ~40,000 road deaths a year Transportation & Safety 1975-2024 Illustrative Who's Minding the Home CMS Nursing Home Care Compare For-profit vs nonprofit staffing, turnover, and neglect - the numbers behind the star rating, ranked by state. 14,695 nursing homes rated Health & Medicine Current Full Off the Shelves openFDA Enforcement What gets pulled and why - Class I recalls by reason, drug vs food vs device, and the firms that keep reappearing. 86,419 recall records since 2004 Health & Medicine Weekly Full What the Job Pays BLS OEWS Median and 10th-to-90th-percentile pay for a job across metros - the cost-of-living-blind wage spreads nobody quotes. 830 occupations, wage by metro Labor & Workplace Annual Illustrative What the Weather Did NOAA Storm Events Tornadoes get the airtime, but heat and flooding do the killing - 75 years of deaths and damage by event and state. 2.0M storm events since 1950 Housing & Weather 1950-2026 Full Where the Tuition Goes NCES IPEDS Instruction vs administration vs overhead - the cost structure the earnings scorecards leave out. ~6,000 colleges, cost structure Government & Education 1980-present Illustrative Who You Complained About CFPB Consumer Complaints Which financial companies draw the most complaints - and who actually resolves them - by product and state. ~10M consumer complaints filed Money & Accountability 2011-present Illustrative Where Your Donation Goes IRS Form 990 Overhead ratios and executive pay per charity, by category - the disclosure hiding in every nonprofit's tax return. ~1.5M nonprofits, overhead & pay Money & Accountability 2023-2025 Illustrative Who Lends to Whom CFPB HMDA Mortgage approvals and denials read for the fair-lending gaps - who gets the loan in your metro, and who doesn't. ~15M mortgage applications a year Money & Accountability Annual Illustrative Who Pays For Politics FEC Bulk Data Campaign money by industry, geography, and the donors who give across every cycle. $14B+ raised per cycle, itemized Money & Accountability By cycle Illustrative What the Pitch Was Doing MLB Statcast Every pitch measured - velocity, spin, movement - and the gap between the best stuff and the best results. ~700K tracked pitches a season Sport & Culture 2015-present Illustrative Off the Rails FRA Office of Safety Derailments and hazmat releases by railroad - the accident and spill records the majors do not advertise. 224,704 rail accidents since 1975 Transportation & Safety 1975-2026 Full What the Pipeline Spilled PHMSA Pipeline Safety Barrels spilled, cost, and deaths by operator and commodity - the significant-vs-serious split, read straight. ~600/yr significant pipeline incidents Transportation & Safety 1986-present Illustrative Hazmat in Motion PHMSA Hazmat Releases by transport mode and material - highway, rail, air, water - and the rare catastrophe in the long tail. ~24K/yr hazmat incidents reported Transportation & Safety 2020-2024 Full What Sent You to the ER CPSC NEISS The consumer products that actually land people in the ER (weighted estimates) and how long recalls take to issue. ~400K ER visits sampled a year Transportation & Safety ~20 yrs Illustrative The American Health Map CDC BRFSS Obesity, smoking, diabetes and skipped-care prevalence by state, and which states got healthier over a decade. 400K survey responses a year Health & Medicine 2011-present Illustrative Where the Prescriptions Go CMS Medicare Part D Where Part D money lands - the handful of brand drugs that dominate spend, and opioid rates by state and specialty. $275B annual Part D spend Health & Medicine 2013-2023 Illustrative Cause of Death CDC WONDER Leading causes of death and the deaths-of-despair curve - drug and alcohol mortality by state, age-adjusted. age-adj. mortality by cause & state Health & Medicine 1999-present Illustrative Where the Paychecks Are BLS QCEW Average weekly wage and employment by county and industry - the gap between headline metros and everywhere else. 3,100+ counties, wages & jobs Labor & Workplace Quarterly Illustrative Wage Theft, By the Numbers DOL Wage & Hour Who got caught, how much was owed to workers, and whether it was recovered - by industry and state. 300K+ concluded wage cases Labor & Workplace 2005-present Illustrative Down the Mine MSHA Mine injuries and fatalities normalized by hours worked - the safety story OSHA has no jurisdiction to tell. 2.33 mine injuries per 200K hours Labor & Workplace 2000-2025 Full What They Released EPA TRI Facility-level toxic releases rolled to your county - and whether the pounds are actually going down since 1987. ~77K/yr toxic-release reports Environment 1987-2024 Full Days of Bad Air EPA AirData Which counties breathe the worst air and whether it is improving - and the pollutant driving each county's bad days. 74% drop in bad-air days since 2000 Environment 2000-2024 Full Bank Health, Quarter by Quarter FDIC BankFind Who is growing, who carries risk, and the post-SVB regional-bank shakeout - assets, ROA, and failures. ~4,500 insured banks tracked Money & Accountability Quarterly Illustrative Who Gets the Federal Money USAspending Contractor and recipient concentration by agency, and where the federal dollars actually land geographically. $T/yr federal awards Money & Accountability 2008-present Illustrative Member-Owned Money NCUA Credit-union growth, consolidation, and who they serve - the mutualist counterpoint to the banks. ~4,600 credit unions tracked Money & Accountability 1994-present Illustrative Federal Disaster Country OpenFEMA The counties living in near-permanent federal disaster - declaration frequency by type, accelerating over decades. ~70K disaster declarations Housing & Weather 1953-present Full Who Actually Builds Housing Census BPS Permits per capita by metro and the single- vs multi-family mix - the supply side of the affordability story. per metro housing units permitted Housing & Weather Annual Illustrative How Far Prices Ran FHFA HPI Home-price index growth by metro, nominal vs real - how far prices decoupled from local incomes. since 1975 home-price index Housing & Weather 1975-present Illustrative