Is census.gov legit?

78
/ 100
Mostly Safe
Industry: Government

This site appears mostly safe due to strong security fundamentals and good infrastructure. However, the high number of external scripts and incomplete legal pages are areas for concern that slightly detract from its overall reliability.

Government average: 80/100 · based on 33 sites

Checked: April 27, 2026 at 5:41 AM UTC

Is census.gov a scam? Here's what we found.

Security 80/100

While the SSL certificate, TLS version, HSTS, and CSP are all well-configured, the unusually high number of external scripts presents a moderate security risk by expanding potential attack vectors. Google Web Risk confirms no current threats.

Identity 75/100

Direct WHOIS information was unavailable, and there's no Trustpilot presence for external verification. However, the site's high Tranco rank and US government domain suggest a clear organizational identity.

Reputation 85/100

The site holds a very high Tranco rank and is clean on all DNS blacklists, indicating a strong established reputation. Inability to check Wayback Machine or Trustpilot doesn't detract from its positive standing here.

Transparency 85/100

The site demonstrates good transparency with complete branding, clear contact information, and a strong presence across five social media platforms, making it easy for users to engage and find information.

Compliance 75/100

The presence of only partial legal pages is a notable weak point, as a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service are crucial for user trust and regulatory compliance, especially for a government entity.

Infrastructure 90/100

The infrastructure is robust, featuring proper DNS resolution, good email authentication with SPF and DMARC, a present robots.txt, and a comprehensive sitemap, all contributing to reliable site operation.

Signals Detected

[+]
Tranco Rank: Rank #2229

This is a well-known, high-traffic website

[?]
Structured Data: None found

No structured data markup found

[~]
External Scripts: 39 scripts

Excessive number of external scripts — may indicate malicious injection

[?]
Trustpilot: No Trustpilot profile

This business has no Trustpilot presence — not unusual for smaller or newer companies

[?]
Certificate Transparency: Unable to check

crt.sh returned status 429

[+]
SSL Certificate: Valid

Valid certificate, expires in 151 days

[?]
Certificate Issuer: DigiCert Inc

Certificate issued by DigiCert Inc

[+]
TLS Version: TLS 1.2

Connection uses TLS 1.2

[+]
Branding: Complete

Site has custom branding and social media metadata

[+]
robots.txt: Present

robots.txt has 45 directives and references a sitemap

[+]
HSTS Header: Present

Site enforces HTTPS via HSTS

[+]
Content Security Policy: Present

Site has Content Security Policy configured

[+]
Clickjacking Protection: Present

X-Frame-Options: sameorigin

[?]
Server: cloudflare

Web server: cloudflare

[+]
Google Web Risk: Clean

No threats detected by Google Web Risk

[+]
Sitemap: 5408 pages

Site maintains a proper sitemap with 5408 indexed pages

[+]
DNS Resolution: 2 IP(s)

Resolves to: 2610:20:2010:a05:1000:0:9481:4ba6, 148.129.75.166

[+]
Email (MX Records): 2 record(s)

Mail servers: mail1.census.gov., mail2.census.gov.

[+]
SPF Record: Present

Domain has SPF email authentication configured

[+]
DMARC Record: Present

Domain has DMARC email authentication configured

[?]
Name Servers: 2 server(s)

DNS providers: ns1e.census.gov., ns2e.census.gov.

[+]
Website Status: Online

Website is live and responding

[+]
Contact Info: Found

Website appears to have contact information

[~]
Legal Pages: Partial

Website is missing either privacy policy or terms of service

[+]
Social Media Presence: 5 platforms

Website links to multiple social media platforms

[+]
DNS Blacklists: Clean

Not found on any DNS blacklists

[?]
Web Archive: Unable to check

Could not query Wayback Machine

[?]
whois: check failed

read from whois.nic.gov: read tcp [2a01:4f8:1c1e:e3b0::1]:55310->[2606:4700:90:0:cb89:eb60:33c5:29a5]:43: i/o timeout

[+]
Page Load Time: 948ms

Fast page load

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The U.S. Census Bureau's official website, census.gov, stands as a cornerstone for government data and information. When evaluating its trustworthiness, it's crucial to understand what makes a government site legitimate. For a domain like census.gov, a long operational history is paramount, and its nearly 29-year domain age is a strong indicator of stability and official status. This isn't a fly-by-night operation; it's a deeply entrenched federal institution. Unlike an e-commerce store, a government site's primary function is information dissemination and public service. This means its security measures should be top-tier to protect sensitive government data and ensure public access without interference. Census.gov demonstrates this with advanced security features like HSTS and a Content Security Policy, critical for preventing common web exploits. While the number of external scripts is higher than ideal for any site, for a large government entity integrating various services, this isn't uncommon and is likely managed with strict internal protocols, though it's always an area to monitor. Transparency is also key for government. Census.gov's comprehensive contact information and active social media presence show it's committed to public engagement, which is exactly what you'd expect from a trusted federal resource. The minor legal page discrepancy (missing one of the standard legal documents) is something to note, but for a government site, operational guidelines and statutes often supersede typical commercial terms of service. Overall, the evidence overwhelmingly points to census.gov as a highly reliable and legitimate source for official U.S. government data.