Research & Data
Benefora publishes original datasets built from public IRS, Social Security Administration and Bureau of Labor Statistics records. Each one ships with a full methodology, a downloadable CSV under an open license, and a citation block. Journalists, researchers, and advisors are welcome to use the numbers with attribution.
Dataset · 3,143 counties · Tax year 2023
The Benefora Social Security Tax Bite Index
How much of each county's Social Security income becomes federally taxable, from IRS county tax-return data joined to SSA county benefit records. Nationally, 37.2% of Social Security dollars were reported as taxable income in tax year 2023; the county range runs from 8.9% to 62.6%.
Dataset · 23 BLS metro and urban areas · Q3 2019 → Q3 2025
The Benefora Social Security COLA Gap Index
Social Security raises vs. local price growth, from BLS consumer price indexes and SSA COLA data. The 6 COLAs in this window added 26.8% to benefits. Over the same windows they fell behind local consumer prices (CPI-U) by more than 1 point in 7 of 23 areas and kept ahead by more than 1 point in 10.
Dataset · 2,803 counties · 2008–2025
The Benefora Women's Social Security Gap Index
Average monthly Social Security benefit of women vs. men aged 65 and older, by county, from SSA beneficiary records. In December 2025, women 65+ receiving benefits got 80.5¢ for every $1 men 65+ received, before the Medicare Part B premium. Includes spouse and survivor benefits; not a pay gap.
How to use this data
Every dataset is released under CC BY 4.0. Cite “Benefora” and link to the dataset page. For questions about methodology or for a custom cut of the data for a story, write to [email protected].