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Construct a Geography Specification for Census Data

Source: R/cens_geo.R
cens_geo.Rd

Currently used mostly internally. Builds a Census API-formatted specification of which geographies to download data for. State and county names (or postal abbreviations) are partially matched to existing tables, for ease of use. Other geographies should be specified with Census GEOIDs. The usgazeteer package, available with remotes::install_github("bhaskarvk/usgazetteer"), may be useful in finding GEOIDs for other geographies. Consult the "geography" sections of each API at https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets.html for information on which geographic specifiers may be provided in combination with others.

Usage

cens_geo(geo = NULL, ..., check = TRUE, api = "acs/acs5", year = 2019)

Arguments

geo

The geographic level to return. One of the machine-readable or human-readable names listed in the "Details" section. Will return all matching geographies of this level, as filtered by the further arguments to .... For example, setting geo="tract" is equivalent to setting tract="all".

...

Geographies to return, as supported by the Census API. Order matters here---the first argument will be the geographic level to return (i.e., it corresponds to the geo argument) and additional arguments will filter the results. Use "all", "*", NA, or TRUE to return all units of a particular geography. See the examples for details.

check

If TRUE, validate the provided geographies against the available geographies from the relevant Census API. Requires the api and year arguments to be specified.

api

A Census API programmatic name such as "acs/acs5".

year

The year for the data

Value

A list with two elements, region and regionin, which together specify a valid Census API geography argument.

Details

Supported geography arguments:

  • us

  • region

  • division

  • state

  • county

  • county_subdiv (County Subdivision)

  • subminor_civil_division (Subminor Civil Division)

  • place_remainder (Place/Remainder (Or Part))

  • tract_part (Tract (Or Part))

  • urban_rural (Urban Rural)

  • block_group_part (Block Group (Or Part))

  • block

  • tract

  • aian_area_part (American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Home Land (Or Part))

  • block_group (Block Group)

  • county_part (County (Or Part))

  • place_part (Place (Or Part))

  • place

  • consolidated_city (Consolidated City)

  • alaska_native_regional_corporation (Alaska Native Regional Corporation)

  • aian_area (American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Home Land)

  • tribal_subdiv (Tribal Subdivision/Remainder)

  • aian_reserve_stat (American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area (Reservation Or Statistical Entity Only))

  • ai_tribal_subdiv_part (American Indian Tribal Subdivision (Or Part))

  • ai_off_reserve_trust (American Indian Area (Off-Reservation Trust Land Only)/Hawaiian Home Land)

  • tribal_census_tract (Tribal Census Tract)

  • tribal_census_tract_part (Tribal Census Tract (Or Part))

  • tribal_block_group (Tribal Block Group)

  • state_part (State (Or Part))

  • county_subdiv_part (County Subdivision (Or Part))

  • tribal_subdiv_part (Tribal Subdivision/Remainder (Or Part))

  • aian_reserve_stat_part (American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area (Reservation Or Statistical Entity Only) (Or Part))

  • ai_off_reserve_trust_part (American Indian Area (Off-Reservation Trust Land Only)/Hawaiian Home Land (Or Part))

  • tribal_block_group_part (Tribal Block Group (Or Part))

  • msa (Metropolitan Statistical Area/Micropolitan Statistical Area)

  • principal_city_part (Principal City (Or Part))

  • metro_division (Metropolitan Division)

  • msa_part (Metropolitan Statistical Area/Micropolitan Statistical Area (Or Part))

  • metro_division_part (Metropolitan Division (Or Part))

  • combined_statistical_area (Combined Statistical Area)

  • combined_necta (Combined New England City And Town Area)

  • necta (New England City And Town Area)

  • combined_statistical_area_part (Combined Statistical Area (Or Part))

  • combined_necta_part (Combined New England City And Town Area (Or Part))

  • necta_part (New England City And Town Area (Or Part))

  • principal_city (Principal City)

  • necta_division (Necta Division)

  • necta_division_part (Necta Division (Or Part))

  • urban_area (Urban Area)

  • urban_area_part (Urban Area (Or Part))

  • consolidated_city_part (Consolidated City (Or Part))

  • cd (Congressional District)

  • sld_upper (State Legislative District (Upper Chamber))

  • sld_lower (State Legislative District (Lower Chamber))

  • alaska_native_regional_corporation_part (Alaska Native Regional Corporation (Or Part))

  • zcta (Zip Code Tabulation Area)

  • zcta_part (Zip Code Tabulation Area (Or Part))

  • school_district_elementary (School District (Elementary))

  • school_district_secondary (School District (Secondary))

  • school_district_unified (School District (Unified))

  • congressional_district_part (Congressional District (Or Part))

  • school_district_elementary_part (School District (Elementary) (Or Part))

  • school_district_secondary_part (School District (Secondary) (Or Part))

  • school_district_unified_part (School District (Unified) (Or Part))

  • voting_district_part (Voting District (Or Part))

  • subminor_civil_division_part (Subminor Civil Division (Or Part))

  • state_legislative_district_upper_chamber_part (State Legislative District (Upper Chamber) (Or Part))

  • state_legislative_district_lower_chamber_part (State Legislative District (Lower Chamber) (Or Part))

  • vtd (Voting District)

  • ai_tribal_subdiv (American Indian Tribal Subdivision)

  • puma (Public Use Microdata Area)

Examples

cens_geo(state="WA")
#> $region
#> [1] "state:53"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> NULL
#> 
cens_geo("county", state="WA") # equivalent to `cens_geo(county="all", state="WA")`
#> $region
#> [1] "county:*"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> [1] "state:53"
#> 
cens_geo(county="King", state="Wash")
#> $region
#> [1] "county:033"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> [1] "state:53"
#> 
cens_geo(zcta="02138", check=FALSE)
#> $region
#> [1] "zip code tabulation area:02138"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> NULL
#> 
cens_geo(zcta=NA, state="WA", check=FALSE)
#> $region
#> [1] "zip code tabulation area:*"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> [1] "state:53"
#> 
cens_geo("zcta", state="WA", check=FALSE)
#> $region
#> [1] "zip code tabulation area:*"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> [1] "state:53"
#> 
cens_geo(cd="09", state="WA", check=FALSE)
#> $region
#> [1] "congressional district:09"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> [1] "state:53"
#> 
cens_geo("county_part", state="WA", cd="09", check=FALSE)
#> $region
#> [1] "county (or part):*"
#> 
#> $regionin
#> [1] "state:53+congressional district:09"
#>