Alabama’s problems don’t sort themselves by agency. A county losing population is a school question, a tax question, a health question, and a workforce question at once. Whole sectors of Alabama life, from nonprofits to the arts to volunteer fire department, deliver services the state depends on but rarely measures. And what Alabamians actually think, as opposed to what is said on their behalf, is data almost no one collects independently.

Some of these questions are too broad for one department. Some are too new. Some are too local. All of them need an answer from someone with no stake in what it turns out to be. That is the work on this page.