Urban Institute

In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson established a blue-ribbon commission of government officials and civil leaders to charter a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute to study America's cities and urban populations. Today, the Urban Institute continues to examine a wide range of social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. It provides information and analysis to public and private decision makers and strives to raise citizen understanding of the issues and trade-offs in public policy making. Project funding comes from government agencies, foundations, and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank.

Current Urban Institute policy research covers a broad range of topics and related subtopics, including adolescent and youth development, governing, children, health and health care, cities and metropolitan regions, housing, crime and justice, immigration, data, international issues, the labor market, education, race, ethnicity, gender, the elderly, tax policy, families and parenting, and welfare reform and safety net issues. Headquartered in Washington, DC, a multidisciplinary staff of about 400 works in its 10 policy centers and cross-center programs.