Information Hub
How It Works
Follow how authoritative historical observations move through PresiCompare and learn how to explore terms, metrics, and comparisons.
Behind the scenes
How PresiCompare Gets Its Data
PresiCompare builds its views from historical observations retrieved from authoritative public data providers. It does not invent or manually type the values shown in charts and tables. Some metrics are imported directly; others are calculated from observations that have already been imported.
Authoritative sources
Public providers publish the underlying records. Examples in PresiCompare's source framework include the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), U.S. Treasury, Census Bureau, and Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Data import
When an import run is executed, registered importers retrieve configured data series from their providers and parse the returned records.
Normalize and store
Records are put into a consistent observation structure, associated with a metric, date, value, source, and presidential term. Metric information supplies context such as the unit and reporting frequency. Duplicate observations are skipped.
PresiCompare database
The application stores observations and reference information in its SQL Server database so that user requests can work from the same locally managed historical data.
PresiCompare API
The API serves metric, term, source, and observation information to the web application. A page load does not fetch every historical value directly from a government provider.
Web application
The web application requests the information it needs from the PresiCompare API and prepares it for the selected page and view.
Charts, tables, and results
People can explore historical observations, review term details, and view comparison charts, tables, statistics, and source notes.
What is active today: registered importers retrieve BLS series and GDP observations through FRED. Other providers listed in the source framework are not necessarily integrated for every metric yet.
From your choices to a result
How a Comparison Works
You choose the historical terms, metric or metrics, and portion of each term to inspect. PresiCompare uses those selections to request matching observations and arrange them for review.
Select terms
Choose one term to explore it by itself, or select up to three terms to compare.
Select metrics
Choose the available economic indicator or indicators you want to examine.
Choose a comparison window
Set the start and end relative year within each term. The default window covers years 1 through 4.
Request the data
The web application sends your selection to the PresiCompare API.
Retrieve and align observations
The comparison service finds stored observations for the selected terms and metrics, then orders them by their relative year within each term.
Review the results
PresiCompare returns dated data points for the page to display as charts, tables, and summaries.
What “relative year” means
Relative years line up the same part of different terms. Year 1 is compared with Year 1, even when the calendar years differ. The underlying calendar dates remain available, so alignment adds context rather than hiding when an observation occurred.
| Presidential term | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obama, Term 1 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
| Trump, Term 1 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
PresiCompare does not decide who performed better. It presents data and comparison context without assigning presidents rankings or scores.
Your comparison workspace
How to Use Comparison
1. Select What You Want to Explore
- Select presidential terms. Choose one term to explore on its own, or add a second or third term when you want to compare.
- Select metrics. Choose one or more available economic metrics.
2. Configure Your View
- Set the comparison window. Enter the relative years to include from each term.
- Generate and review the chart. Read the plotted values in the context of each selected term.
3. Explore the Results
- Switch chart types. Use the Line Chart, Bar Chart, or Area Chart view.
- Review the data table. Check the underlying values and dates.
4. Understand the Results
- Review Summary Statistics. See the summary for the selected metric and terms.
- Review Key Observations. Inspect notable values surfaced for the selected data.
- Check Data Notes and sources. Read the metric context and available attribution before drawing your own conclusions.
You do not need to choose another president to start exploring. A single selected term can be viewed independently; add another term when you want an actual comparison.
A quick way in
Browse Presidential Terms
Browse is a starting point for finding supported terms. Search by name, filter by era, and sort the list. Each term card shows a snapshot of available data, when observations exist.
- Browse terms
- Find a term
- Review its data snapshot
- View Term Details
- Continue in Comparison
View Term Details opens Comparison with that term and its displayed metric already selected, so you can explore the data without starting over. Currently supported presidential-term data begins in 1928; PresiCompare does not provide complete comparable term data for presidents before that boundary.
One metric through time
Data Explorer
Use Data Explorer to investigate an individual metric's historical observations rather than compare presidential terms. Choose an economic metric and a start and end year, then review the observations as a chart and table.
- Open Data Explorer
- Select a metric
- Choose a date range
- Review observations
- Choose a chart or table
- Explore the data
Available visualizations include Line Chart, Bar Chart, Area Chart, Scatter Plot, and Step Chart. Metric details include its unit, reporting frequency, and associated source when available.
Discover a term
Presidential Spotlight
The Home page spotlight is another quick-entry path. It selects a supported term that has available observations and one of that term's available metrics, then links into the data.
- Presidential Spotlight
- Supported term with data
- Available metric
- View Presidential Term
- Comparison opens
The Comparison page opens with the term and metric selected and generates the term view, which you can continue exploring or expand into a comparison. Spotlight uses the same supported-term boundary: 1928.
Choose your starting point
Navigating PresiCompare
There is more than one way to begin. Home offers several routes into the same historical data:
Traceability and context
Data Sources and Attribution
PresiCompare associates observations with their source so you can understand where a value originated. Metric details can show a provider, unit, and reporting frequency; Comparison also provides source information and Data Notes where available.
Use that context to interpret what each measure represents and when it was recorded. PresiCompare provides data and tools for exploration—it does not prescribe the conclusion you should reach.
Data. Context. Perspective.