DebtData corrects material factual, numerical, sourcing, labeling, and methodological errors when they are identified. The goal is to keep published data aligned with the source actually cited and to make meaningful corrections without obscuring what changed.

What Counts as a Correction

A correction may be required when a report contains an incorrect number, unit, date, source attribution, population description, calculation, chart label, table value, geographic label, or statement about what a dataset includes.

A source revision can also require a change. Government agencies sometimes replace files, revise historical values, or update methodological notes after an initial release.

What Is Not Usually a Correction

Routine updates to a newer quarter or year are not necessarily corrections. Copy edits, formatting changes, clearer wording, improved table labels, and other changes that do not alter the substance of a report may be made without describing the earlier version as factually wrong.

How Reports Are Reviewed

When a possible error is reported, DebtData checks the published page against the underlying source, including the relevant period, unit, population, and calculation method. If two sources differ, the review first determines whether they measure the same thing before deciding that either value is incorrect.

How Corrections Are Made

Material errors are corrected in the page content. When a change substantially affects a headline figure, table, chart, or interpretation, the correction may also be reflected in the page’s update information so that readers are not left with an outdated explanation.

DebtData does not preserve a known incorrect number merely because it appeared in an earlier version.

Reporting a Possible Error

A useful correction request identifies the page title, the exact statement or value in question, and the evidence supporting the proposed correction. For table or chart issues, include the row, category, period, or label involved.

Requests based only on a different number from another website may require additional verification. Differences in federal versus private debt, borrower versus recipient counts, point-in-time versus cohort measures, or source periods can produce legitimate differences between published statistics.

Source Disputes

If a primary source later changes or removes a value, DebtData may update the report while preserving the original measurement context where it remains relevant. When a historical series has a documented break, the series is not silently rewritten into a false continuous trend.