BELLEVIEW, WA July 18 (DPI) – USAFacts.org, the government-data site founded by former Microsoft SEO Steve Ballmer in 2017, publishes a weekly “fact quiz” that its readers apparently have a hard time with: Barely a third of quiz-takers manage to correctly answer more than three of the seven questions posed by the site each week, according to the site.

Granted, USAFacts weekly knowledge tests hardly amount to a “news quiz” based on topical reports: Most of the questions are based on long time horizons, reflecting the fact that the site collects – and focuses on – decades’ worth of data.

For instance, here’s one of this week’s questions: “From 2001 to 2022, which country had the most refugees arrive in the US? Burma? Iraq? Somalia?” (Answer: Burma). Many readers, apparently conditioned to reading ongoing headlines about Iraq and Somalia, got this one wrong.

The site and its well organized data – on a range of subjects, from government spending to crime to immigration, and gathered from scores of government sources – have a way of challenging prevailing narratives in major news media today.

Ballmer, in a video on the USAFacts.org site, explains how his “civic initiative” was launched:

USAFacts got its start from a conversation Steve Ballmer had with his wife, Connie, about becoming more involved in philanthropy. To determine the best way to make an impact, he wanted first to see what governments do with the money it raises and who it helps. Where does the money come from, and where is it spent? Whom does it serve? Most importantly, what are the outcomes?

With his business background, Steve searched for solid, reliable, impartial numbers to tell the story. It turned out those numbers weren’t even available. He decided to assemble a small team of economists, writers, and researchers and started a search for the data.
The result was a first-of-its-kind report he felt the rest of the American public deserved to see. After all, Americans are shareholders in the nation’s democracy. They pay taxes for these programs and government departments; they should also see how their money is spent—the result of that is this civic initiative.

USAFacts.org is based in Belleview, WA.