FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
fred.stlouisfed.org ↗Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis economic data infrastructure; ~800k+ data series.
Is FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) reliable to cite? At grade A (91/100 on the SourceScore Index), FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
A+ — economic-data infrastructure; default for US + global economic-stat citations.
Should you cite FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)?
At grade A (91/100), FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
- Strongest for
- tracing claims back to primary references — its highest dimension is Citation Discipline (94/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Citation Velocity, scores 88/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite freely as a primary source.
Need recurring mention tracking rather than a one-off readiness audit? Compare AI-visibility tools.
Sourced from primary statistical agencies; methodology + lineage documented per series.
How Citation Discipline is scored →Free public API + bulk downloads + visualization tools; broad LLM corpus.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited daily by economists + financial press + AI engines; default for econ-stat citation.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 1 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A·94- Per-series methodologyEach series links to primary source + methodology.
Modern Reference
A·92- FRED APIFree public REST API for ~800k economic series.
Citation Velocity
A·88- Default citationFirst-line for US economic-data citations.
Cite this score
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[FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — SourceScore Index 91 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/fred-stlouisfed/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/fred-stlouisfed/">FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — SourceScore Index 91 (A)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data): SourceScore Index 91 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/fred-stlouisfed/
2 head-to-head comparisons
See all FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) comparisons →Each comparison sets FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)'s tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) a reliable source to cite?
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) scores A (91/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 94/100, Modern Reference 92/100, and Citation Velocity 88/100 — full breakdown above.
What is FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)'s SourceScore?
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) (fred.stlouisfed.org) scores 91/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 94/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 92/100, Citation Velocity 88/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)?
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) score A?
A+ — economic-data infrastructure; default for US + global economic-stat citations.
What is FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)?
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis economic data infrastructure; ~800k+ data series. Category: Government. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.