Record Group Explorer

Welcome to NARA's Record Group Explorer. Permanent federal records held by NARA are organized into numbered Record Groups comprising the records of a major government entity, usually a bureau or an independent agency.

This visualization presents NARA's Record Groups in descending order from the Record Group with the largest number of textual records to the smallest.

2.198%
2.198% As of February 2024, there are 261,839,232 scans online representing 2.198% of the estimated total number of textual pages in NARA's holdings.
11,911,079,256 estimated total textual pages (Learn more about these numbers)

Volume of Textual Records

% / # Textual Records Scanned

Additional Records Online

No Records Online

About the Record Group Explorer Numbers

The Record Group Explorer data visualization is based on a count of the scans of textual pages available through the National Archives Catalog and an estimate of the total number of textual pages currently in NARA's holdings. Numbers will be updated monthly to reflect new additions to the Catalog and future iterations of the Explorer will provide additional data on records types other than textual records.

How Record Group Explorer Numbers are Calculated

The number of scans online uses file counts accessed via the National Archives Catalog API.

The estimated total pages in each Record Group is calculated by taking the volume of textual records (in cubic feet) and multiplying by an average of 2,500 pages of records per cubic foot. The 2,500 page average coming from historical capacity estimates for a Federal Records Center (FRC) box used to store archival documents.

The percent of scanned textual pages online equals scans online / estimated total pages

See the numbers

About Record Groups

NARA arranges its holdings into numbered Record Groups, each of which comprises the records of a major government organization such as a bureau or an independent agency. For example, National Archives Record Group 29 (or RG 29) is the "Records of the Bureau of the Census." Most Record Groups also include records of any predecessors to the organization named in the title. The number assigned to a record group reflects the order in which it was established by NARA.

A few Record Groups combine the records of several small or short-lived agencies having an administrative or functional relationship with each other. An example of this type of record group is Record Group 76, Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitrations.

Several Records Groups have been cancelled or retired and are no longer in use. These records may have been merged with another Record Group or reappraised as temporary (and thus no longer retained by the National Archives as permanent records).

Record Group Explorer Tools
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