Census of Governments and Annual Government Finance API

What you can build

Individual government directories and revenue, spending, debt and asset items with reported/imputed flags; separate published state/national item estimates and source dictionaries. Nominal amounts are thousands of USD. Census reviews state/type estimates, not accurate individual-unit time series; sampling/non-sampling error and nonresponse apply. Missing items are not zero; unknown flags remain explicit. No audited financial statements, bond ratings or synthesized totals. Use this dataset as a sourced input to an application, analytical model or retrieval tool. Retain its native dimensions when joining it with your own records.

Query Census of Governments and Annual Government Finance

The example below is a real bounded request against the available release. Replace the environment variable with your server-side API credential. Review endpoint parameters and response schemas before changing selectors.

curl --fail --get "https://api.geoamcan.com/v1/government/finances?year=2022&government_id=010000226085&item_code=19U&include_details=True&limit=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GEOAMCAN_API_KEY"

Saved response excerpt

{
  "requested_area": {
    "year": 2022,
    "state": null,
    "government_id": "010000226085",
    "government_type": null,
    "item_code": "19U",
    "data_flag": null,
    "include_details": true
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "year": 2022,
      "government_id": "010000226085",
      "name": "ALABAMA",
      "state_fips": "01",
      "government_type": "0",
      "item_code": "19U",
      "source_amount_thousands": 8737432,
      "data_flag": "R",
      "item_label": "Beg LT Debt O/S NEC",
      "source_line": "01000022608519U     87374322022R",
      "government_type_label": "State",
      "amount_thousands_usd": 8737432
    }
  ],
  "availability": {
    "status": "available",
    "edition": "census",
    "individual_unit_time_series_reviewed": false,
    "audited_financial_statements": false,
    "geometry_available": false,
    "sampling_weights_applied_to_unit_records": false
  },
  "snapshot": {
    "census-government-finance": {
      "release_id": 128,
      "release": "2022 census, 2024 annual_survey",
      "fingerprint": "a7c9ee4d5452ebc3634a446f8937a4c3"
    }
  },
  "returned_count": 1,
  "complete": true,
  "next_offset": null,
  "limitations": [
    "2022 Census of Governments finance benchmark and 2024 annual survey inputs; fiscal/reporting years and government coverage differ. Census edits individual units to produce state/type estimates and has not reviewed individual-unit records or item-code totals as accurate time series. These are Census source inputs; Census has not sanctioned or reviewed analyses derived from them. Sampling and non-sampling error, coverage, nonresponse, coding and imputation can affect results; no direct measures of non-sampling error are supplied. Source monetary amounts are nominal thousands of USD. Preserve signed amounts, reported/imputed/alternative-source/unknown flags and missing items; absence is not zero. Unknown/not-applicable flags do not provide usable monetary estimates. Government type codes and aggregate estimate-level codes are different classifications. State/local combined levels and intergovernmental flows overlap; do not sum levels, all item codes or sample units into invented totals. County/place identifiers describe source directory location, not guaranteed service territory. Population/enrollment years and fiscal-year-end codes remain native. No audited financial statements, complete individual-government time series, bond-level debt, credit ratings, live budgets or geometry are inferred."
  ],
  "source_attribution": {
    "census-government-finance": "US Census Bureau — https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/gov-finances/data/datasets.html"
  },
  "metric_definitions": {
    "source_amount_thousands": "Exact signed numeric source amount, in nominal thousands of USD, even when an accompanying flag marks it unknown/not applicable.",
    "amount_thousands_usd": "Usable native monetary estimate; null for unknown/not-applicable flags or blank source amounts. Missing items do not imply zero.",
    "amount_usd": "amount_thousands_usd × 1000; explicit unit conversion only, without inflation adjustment, financial consolidation or imputation.",
    "data_flag": {
      "A": "Analyst correction",
      "I": "Imputed",
      "M": "Unknown",
      "N": "Not applicable",
      "R": "Reported",
      "S": "Alternative source"
    },
    "government_type": {
      "0": "State",
      "1": "County",
      "2": "City/municipality",
      "3": "Township",
      "4": "Special district",
      "5": "Independent school district or educational service agency"
    },
    "estimate_level": {
      "1": "State and local combined",
      "2": "State government",
      "3": "Local governments combined",
      "5": "County governments",
      "6": "City/municipality governments",
      "7": "Township governments",
      "8": "Special district governments",
      "9": "School district governments"
    },
    "coefficient_of_variation": "Native state/level source CV numeric field; a period marker is unavailable, not zero. No percentage scaling, standard errors or confidence intervals are derived. Zero CV does not rule out non-sampling error.",
    "directory_codes": "Source county/place codes indicate location. Population/enrollment reference years are native two-character codes; fiscal_year_end_code is the native four-character field, not a synthesized date.",
    "item_label": "Short description extracted from this edition’s bundled technical PDF. Codes absent from that dictionary retain null labels; none are guessed."
  }
}

Captured 2026-11-07. Excerpt omits pagination credentials and may shorten nested records. Download verified source responses.

Coverage and interpretation

2022 Census of Governments finance benchmark and 2024 annual survey inputs; fiscal/reporting years and government coverage differ. Census edits individual units to produce state/type estimates and has not reviewed individual-unit records or item-code totals as accurate time series. These are Census source inputs; Census has not sanctioned or reviewed analyses derived from them. Sampling and non-sampling error, coverage, nonresponse, coding and imputation can affect results; no direct measures of non-sampling error are supplied. Source monetary amounts are nominal thousands of USD. Preserve signed amounts, reported/imputed/alternative-source/unknown flags and missing items; absence is not zero. Unknown/not-applicable flags do not provide usable monetary estimates. Government type codes and aggregate estimate-level codes are different classifications. State/local combined levels and intergovernmental flows overlap; do not sum levels, all item codes or sample units into invented totals. County/place identifiers describe source directory location, not guaranteed service territory. Population/enrollment years and fiscal-year-end codes remain native. No audited financial statements, complete individual-government time series, bond-level debt, credit ratings, live budgets or geometry are inferred.

The active release shown here is a catalog snapshot. Check the live catalog and response provenance for current readiness. The underlying public source and Geoamcan access terms are separate; consult the source’s licensing and attribution requirements.

Source and methodology

Source: US Census Bureau. Geoamcan is an independent API provider, with no agency affiliation or endorsement. Read our data methodology for source handling, geographic joins and update practices.

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