Censusr

Grabbing data in R from the Census API

Learning Objectives

• Grab ACS or Decennial Census data from Census API

To install this package, run the command below. For full details on how to get started using censusr on your computer, see the package vignette.

install.packages("censusr")
vignette("censusr")

Load required package.

library(censusr)

And then let’s get to business! The package works by sending a list of requested variables and a list of geographies. The call below requests the number of households owning 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 or more vehicles in Wake County, North Carolina (geoid = 37183). We specify that we want this table for 2012 5-year summary level.

variable_list <- paste0("B08201_", sprintf("%03d", 2:6),  "E")
call_census_api(
  variable_list, names = c(0:4), geoids = "37183",  
  data_source = "acs", year =  2012, period = 5) 

We can use the allgeos argument to say that we actually want these variables for all census tracts within Wake County.

call_census_api(
  variable_list, names = paste0("est_", c(0:4)), 
  geoids = "37183",  allgeos = "tr",
  data_source = "acs", year =  2012, period = 5)

If we want the margins of error on this table instead of the estimates, we can change the variable to call the M type instead of the E type.

new_var_list <- paste0("B08201_", sprintf("%03d", 2:6),  "M")
call_census_api(
  new_var_list, names = paste0("moe_", c(0:4)), 
  geoids = "37183",  allgeos = "tr",
  data_source = "acs", year =  2012, period = 5)