censusapi is a lightweight package to get data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s APIs. More than 1,500 API endpoints are available, including data from surveys such as the Decennial Census, American Community Survey, International Trade Datasets, Small Area Health Insurance Estimates and the Economics Indicators Time Series. getCensus() lets users retrieves data from any of those datasets using simple, consistent syntax.
The package also includes metadata functions to help users determine which datasets are available and the variable, geography, and other options in each of them.
Installation
Get the latest stable release from CRAN:
install.packages("censusapi")You can also install the latest development version of censusapi from Github using devtools:
# Install the devtools package if needed
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("hrecht/censusapi")Basic usage
Using the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates dataset, get the poverty rate (SAEPOVRTALL_PT) for every year since 2010 in Los Angeles County, California.
poverty_rate <- getCensus(
name = "timeseries/poverty/saipe",
vars = c("NAME", "SAEPOVRTALL_PT"),
region = "county:037",
regionin = "state:06",
time = "from 2010")
poverty_rate
#> time state county NAME SAEPOVRTALL_PT
#> 1 2010 06 037 Los Angeles County 17.6
#> 2 2011 06 037 Los Angeles County 18.4
#> 3 2012 06 037 Los Angeles County 19.1
#> 4 2013 06 037 Los Angeles County 19.0
#> 5 2014 06 037 Los Angeles County 18.7
#> 6 2015 06 037 Los Angeles County 16.7
#> 7 2016 06 037 Los Angeles County 16.3
#> 8 2017 06 037 Los Angeles County 14.9
#> 9 2018 06 037 Los Angeles County 14.2
#> 10 2019 06 037 Los Angeles County 13.4
#> 11 2020 06 037 Los Angeles County 13.2
#> 12 2021 06 037 Los Angeles County 14.1
#> 13 2022 06 037 Los Angeles County 13.9Using the 2022 5-year American Community Survey Subject Tables dataset, for all Census tracts in Arizona, get the:
- total number of households (S2801_C01_001E)
- number of households without an internet subscription (S2801_C01_019E)
- percent of households without an internet subscription (S2801_C02_019E)
- Census tract name
no_internet <- getCensus(
name = "acs/acs5/subject",
vintage = 2022,
vars = c("S2801_C01_001E", "S2801_C01_019E", "S2801_C02_019E", "NAME"),
region = "tract:*",
regionin = "state:04")
head(no_internet)
#> state county tract S2801_C01_001E S2801_C01_019E S2801_C02_019E NAME
#> 1 04 001 942600 429 412 96.0 Census Tract 9426; Apache County; Arizona
#> 2 04 001 942700 1439 1006 69.9 Census Tract 9427; Apache County; Arizona
#> 3 04 001 944000 1556 903 58.0 Census Tract 9440; Apache County; Arizona
#> 4 04 001 944100 1446 966 66.8 Census Tract 9441; Apache County; Arizona
#> 5 04 001 944201 1154 835 72.4 Census Tract 9442.01; Apache County; Arizona
#> 6 04 001 944202 1111 874 78.7 Census Tract 9442.02; Apache County; Arizona Advanced usage
Users can pass any valid parameters to the APIs using getCensus(). The Census Bureau refers to these filterable parameter variables as “predicates”.
Using the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, we can use these predicates to get the uninsured rate (PCTUI_PT) for specific demographic groups, including income group, age group, and race/ethnicity.
# See the values of `IPRCAT`
listCensusMetadata(
name = "timeseries/healthins/sahie",
type = "values",
variable = "IPRCAT")
#> code label
#> 1 0 All Incomes
#> 2 1 Less than or Equal to 200% of Poverty
#> 3 2 Less than or Equal to 250% of Poverty
#> 4 3 Less than or Equal to 138% of Poverty
#> 5 4 Less than or Equal to 400% of Poverty
#> 6 5 138% to 400% Poverty
# See the values of `AGECAT`
listCensusMetadata(
name = "timeseries/healthins/sahie",
type = "values",
variable = "AGECAT")
#> code label
#> 1 0 Under 65 years
#> 2 1 18 to 64
#> 3 2 40 to 64
#> 4 3 50 to 64
#> 5 4 Under 19 years
#> 6 5 21 to 64 years
# Get the uninsured rate over time for for nonelderly adults (AGECAT = 1)
# at 138% to 400% of the federal poverty line (IPRCAT = 5)
# in Los Angeles County, California
sahie_la <- getCensus(
name = "timeseries/healthins/sahie",
vars = c("NAME", "PCTUI_PT"),
region = "county:037",
regionin = "state:06",
time = "from 2012",
IPRCAT = 5,
AGECAT = 1)
sahie_la
#> time state county NAME PCTUI_PT IPRCAT AGECAT
#> 1 2012 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 35.5 5 1
#> 2 2013 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 34.3 5 1
#> 3 2014 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 25.0 5 1
#> 4 2015 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 18.6 5 1
#> 5 2016 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 16.3 5 1
#> 6 2017 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 15.5 5 1
#> 7 2018 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 16.2 5 1
#> 8 2019 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 18.3 5 1
#> 9 2020 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 16.7 5 1
#> 10 2021 06 037 Los Angeles County, CA 16.1 5 1
# Get the 2021 uninsured rate for nonelderly adults (AGECAT = 1)
# at 138% to 400% of the federal poverty line (IPRCAT = 5)
# by race and ethnicity for Alabama
sahie_alabama <- getCensus(
name = "timeseries/healthins/sahie",
vars = c("NAME", "PCTUI_PT", "RACECAT", "RACE_DESC"),
region = "state:*",
time = 2021,
IPRCAT = 5,
AGECAT = 1)
sahie_alabama
#> time state NAME PCTUI_PT RACECAT RACE_DESC IPRCAT AGECAT
#> 1 2021 01 Alabama 15.9 0 All Races 5 1
#> 2 2021 01 Alabama 14.1 1 White alone, not Hispanic or Latino 5 1
#> 3 2021 01 Alabama 15.4 2 Black or African American alone, not Hispanic or Latino 5 1
#> 4 2021 01 Alabama 40.4 3 Hispanic or Latino (any race) 5 1
#> 5 2021 01 Alabama 20.8 4 American Indian and Alaska Native alone, not Hispanic or Latino 5 1
#> 6 2021 01 Alabama 14.8 5 Asian alone, not Hispanic or Latino 5 1
#> 7 2021 01 Alabama 20.0 6 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, not Hispanic or Latino 5 1
#> 8 2021 01 Alabama 16.9 7 Two or More Races, not Hispanic or Latino 5 1To learn more about using censusapi, read the package documentation and articles at https://www.hrecht.com/censusapi/.
Disclaimer
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.