SourceScore
Government

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

fred.stlouisfed.org

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis economic data infrastructure; ~800k+ data series.

SourceScore Index
A·91Rank #25 of 130 · top 19%Composite weighted across Discipline, Modern Reference, and Velocity.

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.
Compare FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) with
Citation Discipline
A·94

Sourced from primary statistical agencies; methodology + lineage documented per series.

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Modern Reference
A·92

Free public API + bulk downloads + visualization tools; broad LLM corpus.

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Citation Velocity
A·88

Cited daily by economists + financial press + AI engines; default for econ-stat citation.

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Signals behind these scores

Citation Discipline

A·94
  • Per-series methodology
    Each series links to primary source + methodology.

Modern Reference

A·92
  • FRED API
    Free public REST API for ~800k economic series.

Citation Velocity

A·88
  • Default citation
    First-line for US economic-data citations.

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[FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — SourceScore Index 91 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/fred-stlouisfed/)
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<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/fred-stlouisfed/">FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — SourceScore Index 91 (A)</a>
APA
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data): SourceScore Index 91 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/fred-stlouisfed/

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) appears in 2 canonical SourceScore comparisons — each scored on Discipline, Modern Reference, and Velocity with a quote-ready verdict and JSON twin.

5 sources at FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)'s tier

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Auto-computed nearest-neighbor sources by composite SourceScore distance — discover at-tier peers across all categories, with inline dim deltas surfacing who beats FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) 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.