As of September 2023, there were 572 approved active research projects in the RDCs.  Projects using data provided by the Census Bureau account for 66 percent of total projects. Projects using data provided by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMSHA) account for 32 percent of total projects. There are currently 10 active Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects (three are joint projects with the Census Bureau), one active Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) project and two National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) projects (both are joint projects with the Census Bureau).

Active and approved FSRDC projects increased from 276 projects in September 2017 to 572 projects in September 2023, for an average annualized growth rate of 12.9 percent. Census Bureau projects grew from 142 to 377, for an average annualized growth rate of 17.7 percent.

This figure illustrates the high degree of collaboration between researchers at the RDCs and the increase since 2017.  Node size and color intensity shows the number of active projects at each RDC.  Edge size and color intensity shows the number of collaborations between node pairs (edges representing single collaborations between RDCs are omitted).

The Census Bureau provides secure remote virtual access for a select number of FSRDC researchers whose projects involve only Title 13 data.  As of September 2023, 74 projects were eligible for remote virtual access (12.9 percent of all active FSRDC projects), and 57 projects (accounting for 77 percent of eligible projects) were using remote virtual access.