NPR

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Is On A Mission: Make Government Data More Transparent

Ballmer has founded an organization called USAFacts that provides one-stop shopping for federal, state and local government statistics. It's just released its annual report.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has founded an organization called USAFacts to put U.S. government statistics all together in one place. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

The U.S. government collects a lot of statistics. So do state governments, city governments — and on and on.

The problem is, if you want to use those statistics to make a decision about some important policy, they’re not all in one place. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer thinks he’s found a solution: a new organization he’s founded called USAFacts.

It provides one-stop shopping for government statistics, and it’s just released its annual report.

“I wanted to understand, by the numbers — because numbers, to me, tell an accurate story — I wanted to understand what government was doing, where the money was coming from, what it was being spent on and what kind of‘s Jeremy Hobson. “And there was no consolidated view.”

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