How to Cite a Government Report in Chicago
Updated August 2026
Citing a government report in Chicago comes down to one template and a handful of rules. Below: the exact 17th edition format, a real example produced by our citation engine, and the in-text form — or paste your source into the generator and copy the finished citation.
The Chicago format
Author Last, First. “Title of the Page.” Site Name. Month Day, Year. URL.
Chicago (17th edition) formats a government report reference as shown above. A real example, generated by our citation engine:
National Sleep Foundation. "Sleep in America poll: Sleep and mental health." National Sleep Foundation. 2024. https://www.thensf.org/sleep-in-america-poll-2024.
In-text(National Sleep Foundation 2024)
Finding the pieces
Or skip the hunt: Paste the report's landing-page URL into the generator, or use Manual Entry with the agency as author, and every field is filled from the source's own record — then select Chicago on the result.
- Author — the agency or department that issued it, written in full
- Report number — on the cover or title page; include it after the title when present
- Year — publication year from the cover or front matter
- The official URL — the agency's own page for the report, not a third-party mirror
Chicago's formatting rules at work
- First author inverted, additional authors in natural order
- Titles use Title Case; articles in quotes, containers in italics
- Reads like prose: the year sits in parentheses before the page range for articles
- Pairs with footnotes — the same data in sentence form with commas
Government Report-specific pitfalls
- The agency is usually both author and publisher — most styles then drop the repeated name
- Larger hierarchy can be included: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health
- Congressional documents, statutes, and case law have specialized legal-citation formats beyond this pattern
In-text citations in Chicago
Chicago's notes-bibliography system cites with footnotes: a superscript number in the text pointing to a note with the source details and page. The bibliography entry shown here contains everything the footnote needs — un-invert the author's name and swap most periods for commas to form the note.
No author? The note and bibliography entry begin with the title; alphabetize by it (ignoring A/An/The).
Building the Bibliography
Every in-text citation pairs with a full entry on the Bibliography page, alphabetized by author. Add each citation to your bibliography as you generate it, and the Bibliography Builder assembles and exports the finished page to Word with the title, ordering, and indentation Chicago requires.
Keep every citation you make.
A free account saves your citation history and organizes sources into projects with notes and tags.
Create a free account →Find the sources you should be citing.
Premium searches 250 million scholarly works by topic, recommends citations for your claims, and flags statements in your writing that need support.
Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the basic Chicago format for a government report?
- Author Last, First. “Title of the Page.” Site Name. Month Day, Year. URL. — see the worked example above, generated by the same engine that powers the free citation tool.
- Who is the author when no person is named?
- The issuing agency, written out in full. In-text, long agency names can be abbreviated after a first full mention: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2024), then (WHO, 2024).
- How do I cite a government report in Chicago in-text?
- With a footnote: a superscript number pointing to a note with the source details and the specific page.
- Can I get this citation in other styles too?
- Yes — every result in the generator renders APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE simultaneously. Generate once, switch styles with one click.