Justice, Fairness, Inclusion, and Performance.

Federalism, intergovernmental relations and multilevel governance is a multi-disciplinary area of public policy. As such data on federalism and intergovernmental relations is relevant to a wide range of elected officials, policy makers, researchers, students and citizens.

Federal, state and local government data. In order to allow users of the online data platform to engage in data analysis in a flexible manner, Significant Features of American Federalism presents data for federal, state and local governments in Excel format. This allows user to easily download data tables for different aspects of federalism and intergovernmental relations; to make comparisons across government levels; make comparisons between states; and/or analyze variations within states.

Territorial-administrative structure of the United States. A detailed overview of the territorial-administrative structure of the United States is presented separately as part of the Data and Research Notes.

State and local government FIPS codes. In order to facilitate matching state and local-level data, Significant Features generally identifies state and local governments using their Federal Informational Processing Standard (FIPS) code.

Each state is identified by a two-digit code (e.g., Alabama – 01; Alaska – 02; and son on), while counties or county-equivalent areas within each state are identified by a three-digit code. As a result, each county in the country can be identified by a five-digit FIPS code (e.g., Autauga County, Alabama – 01001; Baldwin County, Alabama – 01003; etc.).

In addition, additional FIPS location codes are available for County Subdivisions; Places; and Consolidated Cities.