This ended up being much longer then I intended so I posted it as a gist over here https://gist.github.com/calvinmetcalf/5721819
tl;dr:
Don't be clever, take the conventions of other popular rest APIs as a guide, it's still better then 90% of government.
For the Census team or whomever else ... the DOL APIs only seem to provide access to metadata; no statistical data. What is known of other Federal agencies having APIs that provide access to demographic-economic data?
The demographic profile data for the 113th congressional districts are great! :) To make effective use of these data, the same scope of subject matter are needed minimally for each state and the U.S ... MSAs also needed. Resources may not be available to do this ... offering suggestions. The ACS 2010 & 2011 5 year DP2...DP5 for tracts, places, counties, school districts, states & the U.S. are also requested additions ...more »
The demographic profile data for the 113th congressional districts are great! :)
To make effective use of these data, the same scope of subject matter are needed minimally for each state and the U.S ... MSAs also needed. Resources may not be available to do this ... offering suggestions.
The ACS 2010 & 2011 5 year DP2...DP5 for tracts, places, counties, school districts, states & the U.S. are also requested additions ... and corresponding 2011 ZCTA data.
Thank you.
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Looking good! Thank you for the data updates.
Forum user update - please note that to facilitate everyone's use of the API and developer forum, unregistered users can now browse this forum. Commenting and posting still require registration.
Thanks to everyone for your use of our API service. To help us as we move forward, please provide any feedback you have, for example Census Bureau datasets would you like to see added, suggestions for needed documentation, or other comments.
If I get all of my queries for my database that I need working on the ACS 5yr 2010 API, will I be able to run the same query on Dec 6th by simply changing the 2010 in the URL to 2011? For example, this query works now: http://api.census.gov/data/2010/acs5?key={key}&get=B00001_001E&for=tract:*&in=state:41+county:005 On Dec 6th will it work if I submit this?: http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?key={key}&get=B00001_001E&for=tract:*&in=state:41+county:005 ...more »
If I get all of my queries for my database that I need working on the ACS 5yr 2010 API, will I be able to run the same query on Dec 6th by simply changing the 2010 in the URL to 2011?
For example, this query works now:
http://api.census.gov/data/2010/acs5?key={key}&get=B00001_001E&for=tract:*&in=state:41+county:005
On Dec 6th will it work if I submit this?:
http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?key={key}&get=B00001_001E&for=tract:*&in=state:41+county:005
Thanks!!!
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While there are thousands of individual ACS variables in the ACS data variable list (XML file), I could not find the basic Educational Attainment variables (I did find earnings by educational attainment)...Are they there and I am just not finding them?
This is intended to be positive & helpful ... to Census: the scope of tables/items is insufficient to build "real" generalized applications. Too many key tables are missing (for typical users) and many of those included are relatively infrequently used. To make this "catch" with the broad developer community, the subject matter data needs expansion. For ACS 5 year data, consider first all of those tables that are ...more »
This is intended to be positive & helpful ... to Census: the scope of tables/items is insufficient to build "real" generalized applications. Too many key tables are missing (for typical users) and many of those included are relatively infrequently used. To make this "catch" with the broad developer community, the subject matter data needs expansion. For ACS 5 year data, consider first all of those tables that are available at the block group level (thus also higher) as contained in the Tract and Block Group Summary File.
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Is there any support (yet?) for congressional districts and other lower-level geographies in the ACS API? States and counties work fine, but I run into problems as soon as I start to go a little deeper into the hierarchy. Are most of these other area types only supported for the SF1 data?
