How to Cite a Government Website
Updated July 2026
A government web page is cited like a web document with one defining trait: the agency is the author. There's rarely an individual byline, so the department or agency takes the author position — and when the agency is also the site name, you don't repeat it.
Here's the pattern for agency pages, reports, and data, in each major style.
The format
Government sources follow the same organization-as-author shape as the example above: the agency leads, then the page/report title, the site (skipped if it repeats the agency), and the URL.
National Sleep Foundation. (2024). Sleep in America poll: Sleep and mental health. National Sleep Foundation. https://www.thensf.org/sleep-in-america-poll-2024
In-text(National Sleep Foundation, 2024)
National Sleep Foundation. "Sleep in America poll: Sleep and mental health." National Sleep Foundation, 2024, https://www.thensf.org/sleep-in-america-poll-2024. Accessed 1 June 2026.
In-text(National Sleep Foundation)
The pieces
- Author — the agency or department (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Spell it out; introduce an abbreviation once if it has a well-known one.
- Date — the publication or last-updated date; (n.d.) if none.
- Title — the specific page or report title, italicized in APA for standalone reports.
- Site name — the hosting site (e.g., the parent department) — skip it when it just repeats the agency author.
- URL — the specific page; avoid session-token or search-result URLs.
Agencies, parent departments, and reports
Many agencies sit inside a larger department (the CDC is part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). APA names the most specific agency as the author; the parent department can serve as the publisher/site for a formal report. A numbered government report adds its report number and is cited as a report rather than a bare web page — see How to Cite a PDF when it arrives as a PDF.
In-text and laws
In-text is the agency and date: (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024), then the abbreviation if you introduced one: (CDC, 2024). Laws, statutes, and court cases are different — they follow legal-citation rules, not this web pattern: see How to Cite Court Cases and Statutes. Official format guidance: the APA Style Blog and Purdue OWL.
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
- Who is the author of a government web page?
- The agency or department responsible — there's usually no individual byline. Spell out the agency name, and introduce a familiar abbreviation (e.g., CDC) once if it has one.
- Do I include the site name for a government page?
- Only when it adds information. If the site name just repeats the agency author, skip it to avoid redundancy.
- How do I cite a government report (not a web page)?
- Cite it as a report: agency as author, report title (italicized), report number if any, and the publisher or URL. If it's a PDF, identify the work inside it and cite that.
- How do I cite a law or statute from a government site?
- Laws, statutes, and court cases follow legal-citation rules, not the web-page pattern. See How to Cite Court Cases and Statutes.