This tool is available in the AFF table view options, would a similar tool for comparing maps displaying data be a benefit for the community?
For local governments that are lacking expertise or resources, is there an option to provide an API to link to their website for visual and textual display?
A liter is 0.264172 gallons. A bit is .125 bytes. Knowing these conversions helps us move between measurements. How about an app that approximately converts geography? A CBSA is equal to a county? I understand converting political to tabulation geographies may be difficult, but anything would help.
I need to access all tracts in a state I used http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?key=***&get=B19057_001E&for=tract:*&in=state:10+county:*. I get an error message and the same error message when I use tract:*&in=state:10. Could someone help. Thank you
The general population is familiar with ZIP codes, county and state boundaries. However, the Census also offers statistics in other useful geographies (e.g., NECTA, County Subdivisin, Tract, etc). But, understanding the hierarchy of Census geographic entities is not intuitive. The Census produced a diagram explaining the levels geography (http://www.census.gov/geo/reference/pdfs/geodiagram.pdf) but more can be done. ...more »
The general population is familiar with ZIP codes, county and state boundaries. However, the Census also offers statistics in other useful geographies (e.g., NECTA, County Subdivisin, Tract, etc).
But, understanding the hierarchy of Census geographic entities is not intuitive. The Census produced a diagram explaining the levels geography (http://www.census.gov/geo/reference/pdfs/geodiagram.pdf) but more can be done.
How about an interactive application that explains how the different Census Geographic Entities interact?
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I am working on a page drawing data from the 1990, 2000 and 2010 SF1 and noticed a lot of differences between them. Most importantly for me: - the variables that can be drawn from the Geographic header varies a lot, in 2010 only the Name, in 1990 and 2000 a whole slew of variables, including a very useful AREALAND, but NAME for one is missing in 1990 - in 2010 the list of available geographies is a lot longer than in ...more »
I am working on a page drawing data from the 1990, 2000 and 2010 SF1 and noticed a lot of differences between them. Most importantly for me:
- the variables that can be drawn from the Geographic header varies a lot, in 2010 only the Name, in 1990 and 2000 a whole slew of variables, including a very useful AREALAND, but NAME for one is missing in 1990
- in 2010 the list of available geographies is a lot longer than in 2000 and 1990. For my page I am especially missing county subdivisions in 1990 and 2000.
- If I ask for a list of states, Puerto Rico is included in 2010, not in 1990 and 2000
- State IDs have a leading zero in 2010, not so in 1990 and 2000. Maybe other ID's as well, I didn't test that. The API seem to work both with and without the leading zero.
Having more consistency in geographies and geographic header variables would be very helpful, the different table numbers and setups is hard enough to deal with.
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http://grahamimac.com/pointcontext/
Paste any point data into Point Context, and it presents a heatmap and provides basic Census data on the average neighborhood for your points.
I originally tried to use the API but found that for larger datasets I had to make way too many API calls to get all the tract data I needed. So I downloaded and stored the Census data in my own database.
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.
When I try an API call like: http://api.census.gov/data/1990/sf1?key=mykey&get=NAME&for=state:*, I get an error message stating "unknown variable 'NAME'". When I replace the 1990 with 2000 or 2010 I get the expected result.
The ACS API includes geographic summary levels above the state level, the SF1 and SF3 API do not. I would like to see those levels added.
Preface: New to API Calls & Census Data (not sure the proper Campaign to post on) Curious, how can I more efficiently pull data through the API without having to specify each individual Unique ID (found in the ACS2011_5-Year_TableShells.xls file)? If I wanted to pull all data for Table ID: B01001 what would my {&get=} be? Currently, I am using each individual Unique ID as so: http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?{key}&get=B01001_001E,B01001_002E,B01001_003E,B01001_004E,B01001_005E,B01001_006E,B01001_007E,B01001_008E,B01001_009E,B01001_010E,NAME&for=state:06 ...more »
Preface: New to API Calls & Census Data (not sure the proper Campaign to post on)
Curious, how can I more efficiently pull data through the API without having to specify each individual Unique ID (found in the ACS2011_5-Year_TableShells.xls file)?
If I wanted to pull all data for Table ID: B01001 what would my {&get=} be?
Currently, I am using each individual Unique ID as so:
http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?{key}&get=B01001_001E,B01001_002E,B01001_003E,B01001_004E,B01001_005E,B01001_006E,B01001_007E,B01001_008E,B01001_009E,B01001_010E,NAME&for=state:06
Is there a syntax for spanning Unique ID values within a single table?
And why is it that I cannot use the Unique ID value as is outlined in the ACS2011_5-YearTableShells.xls file, rather I need to split the value after the Table ID with an underscore and Unique ID value, as so: B01001002 needs to become B01001_002E inorder for the call to work.
Any assistance would be most helpful.
Cheers,
B
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Is it possible to get all tracts within a MSA, as in (an attempt to get all tracts in the DC metro):
http://api.census.gov/data/2011/acs5?key=mykey&get=B00001_001E&for=tract:*&in=metropolitan+statistical+area/micropolitan+statistical+area:47900
This returns:
"error: unknown/unsupported geography heirarchy"
If not this would be useful!
The application that we made in Boston for the national day of civic hacking http://calvinmetcalf.github.io/CodeForBoston-Census/
edit:
I through together a version hosted on Openshift that allows deep linking to specific views.
I am working on analyzing CFPB Consumer Complaint database with help from census data to better understand what type of financial products consumers are having trouble with. Census data helps break down what type of consumers are having what type of issues.
'for' and 'in' are reserved words in JavasSript avoiding these words in the parameter names would probably be a good idea, same thing with 'get' which could cause confusion with the http verb.
API keys are a barrier to entry, and are somewhat pointless for web apps where anyone can view source and grab a key
the api should simply ignore any parameter it doesn't understand instead of throwing an error. For example jquery will append _=randomNumber to prevent caching of jsonp by the browser. This feature breaks that.
The jsonp callback should be 'callback' not 'jsonp' there is no reason you can't have both, but almost every single site that uses jsonp uses callback as the parameter, using something weird prevents people from easily making apps.
I need so assistance in creating an API to pull Median Household Income based on a specific address or if that creates a geocoding problem, i have Lat/long coordinates already. My response from the call should be able to provide me with a dollar amount or a percent over national median household income. The result will be used in an equation. I have a key already.
I open sourced some code for iOS civic hackers to work with the Census & FCC APIs. Hope you guys find it useful:
If I recall correctly, for a lot of our surveys we have field representatives go visit various places to see if there is a housing unit there, in order to keep our survey frames up to date. Perhaps we could have normal people collect the same information by playing a game that has them visit various places and report what they see. This data could then be used to double-check what the field representatives report. ...more »
If I recall correctly, for a lot of our surveys we have field representatives go visit various places to see if there is a housing unit there, in order to keep our survey frames up to date.
Perhaps we could have normal people collect the same information by playing a game that has them visit various places and report what they see. This data could then be used to double-check what the field representatives report.
Google has been experimenting with this kind of data-gathering game. Their "Ingress" app has players visit various places in order to keep its maps up to date.
Geoguessr is another game that could potentially be adapted for this purpose.
Perhaps with enough thought, we could design a game or app to convince people to give us the information that we would normally try to collect in a survey. For example, Mint.com is an online personal finance service that collects much of the same information as, say, the Survey of Consumer Finances. Lots of games and apps out there are collecting all kinds of data without imposing any respondent burden. Of course there are data quality issues to be resolved, but that is certainly also the case with our traditional surveys.
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Here's an example of how to use DataFerret (a Census table-building tool) to lookup variable names and their descriptions on http://dataferrett.census.gov/run.html
We've been using some of the 2010 census data (ACS5,SF1) by calling it using JSONP. After several months of functioning fine, it is throwing an error today. My code hasn't changed, is something broken on your end?
In order to understand how crime or criminal elements are embedded within different communities, it may be useful to combine neighborhood crime data with ACS demographic and housing data. There are hotspots in most cities that could be objectively analyzed to reveal patterns which may be disrupted by governmental policy. That is, if the data clearly points to consistent reliable trends.
