FRED Economic Data Access

Overview

Access comprehensive economic data through FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), a database maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis containing over 800,000 economic time series from over 100 sources.

Key capabilities:

• Query economic time series data (GDP, unemployment, inflation, interest rates)

• Search and discover series by keywords, tags, and categories

• Access historical data and vintage (revision) data via ALFRED

• Retrieve release schedules and data publication dates

• Map regional economic data with GeoFRED

• Apply data transformations (percent change, log, etc.)

API Key Setup

Required: All FRED API requests require an API key.

• Create an account at https://fredaccount.stlouisfed.org

• Log in and request an API key through the account portal

• Set as environment variable:

export FRED_API_KEY="your_32_character_key_here"

Or in Python:

import os os.environ["FRED_API_KEY"] = "your_key_here"

Quick Start

Using the FREDQuery Class

from scripts.fred_query import FREDQuery

Initialize with API key

fred = FREDQuery(api_key="YOUR_KEY") # or uses FRED_API_KEY env var

Get GDP data

gdp = fred.get_series("GDP") print(f"Latest GDP: {gdp['observations'][-1]}")

Get unemployment rate observations

unemployment = fred.get_observations("UNRATE", limit=12) for obs in unemployment["observations"]: print(f"{obs['date']}: {obs['value']}%")

Search for inflation series

inflation_series = fred.search_series("consumer price index") for s in inflation_series["seriess"][:5]: print(f"{s['id']}: {s['title']}")

Direct API Calls

import requests import os

API_KEY = os.environ.get("FRED_API_KEY") BASE_URL = "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred"

Get series observations

response = requests.get( f"{BASE_URL}/series/observations", params={ "api_key": API_KEY, "series_id": "GDP", "file_type": "json" } ) data = response.json()

Popular Economic Series

Series ID Description Frequency

GDP Gross Domestic Product Quarterly

GDPC1 Real Gross Domestic Product Quarterly

UNRATE Unemployment Rate Monthly

CPIAUCSL Consumer Price Index (All Urban) Monthly

FEDFUNDS Federal Funds Effective Rate Monthly

DGS10 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Daily

HOUST Housing Starts Monthly

PAYEMS Total Nonfarm Payrolls Monthly

INDPRO Industrial Production Index Monthly

M2SL M2 Money Stock Monthly

UMCSENT Consumer Sentiment Monthly

SP500 S&P 500 Daily

API Endpoint Categories

Series Endpoints

Get economic data series metadata and observations.

Key endpoints:

• fred/series

• Get series metadata

• fred/series/observations

• Get data values (most commonly used)

• fred/series/search

• Search for series by keywords

• fred/series/updates

• Get recently updated series

Get observations with transformations

obs = fred.get_observations( series_id="GDP", units="pch", # percent change frequency="q", # quarterly observation_start="2020-01-01" )

Search with filters

results = fred.search_series( "unemployment", filter_variable="frequency", filter_value="Monthly" )

Reference: See references/series.md for all 10 series endpoints

Categories Endpoints

Navigate the hierarchical organization of economic data.

Key endpoints:

• fred/category

• Get a category

• fred/category/children

• Get subcategories

• fred/category/series

• Get series in a category

Get root categories (category_id=0)

root = fred.get_category()

Get Money Banking & Finance category and its series

category = fred.get_category(32991) series = fred.get_category_series(32991)

Reference: See references/categories.md for all 6 category endpoints

Releases Endpoints

Access data release schedules and publication information.

Key endpoints:

• fred/releases

• Get all releases

• fred/releases/dates

• Get upcoming release dates

• fred/release/series

• Get series in a release

Get upcoming release dates

upcoming = fred.get_release_dates()

Get GDP release info

gdp_release = fred.get_release(53)

Reference: See references/releases.md for all 9 release endpoints

Tags Endpoints

Discover and filter series using FRED tags.

Find series with multiple tags

series = fred.get_series_by_tags(["gdp", "quarterly", "usa"])

Get related tags

related = fred.get_related_tags("inflation")

Reference: See references/tags.md for all 3 tag endpoints

Sources Endpoints

Get information about data sources (BLS, BEA, Census, etc.).

Get all sources

sources = fred.get_sources()

Get Federal Reserve releases

fed_releases = fred.get_source_releases(source_id=1)

Reference: See references/sources.md for all 3 source endpoints

GeoFRED Endpoints

Access geographic/regional economic data for mapping.

Get state unemployment data

regional = fred.get_regional_data( series_group="1220", # Unemployment rate region_type="state", date="2023-01-01", units="Percent", season="NSA" )

Get GeoJSON shapes

shapes = fred.get_shapes("state")

Reference: See references/geofred.md for all 4 GeoFRED endpoints

Data Transformations

Apply transformations when fetching observations:

Value Description

lin

Levels (no transformation)

chg

Change from previous period

ch1

Change from year ago

pch

Percent change from previous period

pc1

Percent change from year ago

pca

Compounded annual rate of change

cch

Continuously compounded rate of change

cca

Continuously compounded annual rate of change

log

Natural log

Get GDP percent change from year ago

gdp_growth = fred.get_observations("GDP", units="pc1")

Frequency Aggregation

Aggregate data to different frequencies:

Code Frequency

d

Daily

w

Weekly

m

Monthly

q

Quarterly

a

Annual

Aggregation methods: avg (average), sum , eop (end of period)

Convert daily to monthly average

monthly = fred.get_observations( "DGS10", frequency="m", aggregation_method="avg" )

Real-Time (Vintage) Data

Access historical vintages of data via ALFRED:

Get GDP as it was reported on a specific date

vintage_gdp = fred.get_observations( "GDP", realtime_start="2020-01-01", realtime_end="2020-01-01" )

Get all vintage dates for a series

vintages = fred.get_vintage_dates("GDP")

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: Economic Dashboard

def get_economic_snapshot(fred): """Get current values of key indicators.""" indicators = ["GDP", "UNRATE", "CPIAUCSL", "FEDFUNDS", "DGS10"] snapshot = {}

for series_id in indicators:
    obs = fred.get_observations(series_id, limit=1, sort_order="desc")
    if obs.get("observations"):
        latest = obs["observations"][0]
        snapshot[series_id] = {
            "value": latest["value"],
            "date": latest["date"]
        }

return snapshot

Pattern 2: Time Series Comparison

def compare_series(fred, series_ids, start_date): """Compare multiple series over time.""" import pandas as pd

data = {}
for sid in series_ids:
    obs = fred.get_observations(
        sid,
        observation_start=start_date,
        units="pc1"  # Normalize as percent change
    )
    data[sid] = {
        o["date"]: float(o["value"])
        for o in obs["observations"]
        if o["value"] != "."
    }

return pd.DataFrame(data)

Pattern 3: Release Calendar

def get_upcoming_releases(fred, days=7): """Get data releases in next N days.""" from datetime import datetime, timedelta

end_date = datetime.now() + timedelta(days=days)

releases = fred.get_release_dates(
    realtime_start=datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d"),
    realtime_end=end_date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d"),
    include_release_dates_with_no_data="true"
)

return releases

Pattern 4: Regional Analysis

def map_state_unemployment(fred, date): """Get unemployment by state for mapping.""" data = fred.get_regional_data( series_group="1220", region_type="state", date=date, units="Percent", frequency="a", season="NSA" )

# Get GeoJSON for mapping
shapes = fred.get_shapes("state")

return data, shapes

Error Handling

result = fred.get_observations("INVALID_SERIES")

if "error" in result: print(f"Error {result['error']['code']}: {result['error']['message']}") elif not result.get("observations"): print("No data available") else: # Process data for obs in result["observations"]: if obs["value"] != ".": # Handle missing values print(f"{obs['date']}: {obs['value']}")

Rate Limits

• API implements rate limiting

• HTTP 429 returned when exceeded

• Use caching for frequently accessed data

• The FREDQuery class includes automatic retry with backoff

Reference Documentation

For detailed endpoint documentation:

• Series endpoints - See references/series.md

• Categories endpoints - See references/categories.md

• Releases endpoints - See references/releases.md

• Tags endpoints - See references/tags.md

• Sources endpoints - See references/sources.md

• GeoFRED endpoints - See references/geofred.md

• API basics - See references/api_basics.md

Scripts

scripts/fred_query.py

Main query module with FREDQuery class providing:

• Unified interface to all FRED endpoints

• Automatic rate limiting and caching

• Error handling and retry logic

• Type hints and documentation

scripts/fred_examples.py

Comprehensive examples demonstrating:

• Economic indicator retrieval

• Time series analysis

• Release calendar monitoring

• Regional data mapping

• Data transformation and aggregation

Run examples:

uv run python scripts/fred_examples.py

Additional Resources

• FRED Homepage: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

• API Documentation: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/

• GeoFRED Maps: https://geofred.stlouisfed.org/

• ALFRED (Vintage Data): https://alfred.stlouisfed.org/

• Terms of Use: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/

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