[acs-r] acs.R version 1.2: Now, with 2012 data
Ezra Haber Glenn
eglenn at MIT.EDU
Fri Feb 7 09:52:43 EST 2014
Great idea -- I'll sign now, and will help spread the word.
--Ezra
At Thu, 6 Feb 2014 17:20:29 -0800, arilamstein wrote:
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> I just created a petition on whitehouse.gov asking the Obama administration to make all
> census data from all years available via the Census Developer API. Please consider
> signing it and sharing it with other people who you think might benefit from this: http://
> wh.gov/lnc3J
>
> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 2:09 PM, Ezra Haber Glenn <eglenn at mit.edu> wrote:
>
> The acs.R package is limited to data available via the API, listed
> here: <http://www.census.gov/developers/data/>. In short, right now
> it's only the 5-year survey ending in 2010, 2011, 2012.
>
> In addition, the package can only deal with the "Summary File"
> variables -- not the "Data Profiles," which are really in a different
> format -- more like short reports than summary tables.
>
> In the future, I expect that the census will add the 1- and 3-year
> summary files to the API, at which point the package will be able
> fetch those as well.
>
> --Ezra
>
> At Sat, 1 Feb 2014 22:33:42 -0800, M Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> >
> > My initial goal for pdxcensusdata was to provide a 'decoder ring' for
> > Census data for local journalists. The initial test case was going to
> > be languages spoken at home, since the transportation planners here
> > need that for signage and the mobile apps. And I'm personally
> > interested in the Gini coefficient measures of inequality.
> >
> > I'm pretty sure the acs.R package only accesses 2010, 2011 and 2012 as
> > "end years", with a length parameter of 1, 3 or 5 years.
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 10:25 PM, <arilamstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Ed,
> > >
> > > The pdxcensusdata project looks very interesting, but I still have the same
> > > question - which years are accessible with the current version of acs.R?
> > >
> > > You are (mostly) correct about the limitations of the current version of
> > > choroplethr. But in addition to state and county level data, it also
> > > renders ZCTA (Zip Code Tabulated Area) level data. Although I had trouble
> > > working with the ZCTA shapefile that the census releases, so I just render
> > > each ZIP as a colored dot, centered at the longitude and latitude of the
> > > ZIP. At that point its no longer a proper choropleth (because it lacks a
> > > border), but I still thought it was worth including in the project.
> > >
> > > I spoke with Ramnath briefly as well about using rCharts for rendering
> > > choropleths, but I haven't had a chance to follow up with him yet. Please
> > > send along any interesting results you get. I think that choropleths are
> > > going to benefit a lot from the recent advances in interactive graphics.
> > >
> > > Ari
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 7:24 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <znmeb at znmeb.net>
> > > wrote:
> > >>
> > >> I have a script that will extract table code names and their
> > >> definitions into CSV files so one can browse, rather than doing a
> > >> lookup via acs.r lookup functions. See
> > >> https://github.com/znmeb/pdxcensusdata/tree/master/csv. However, this
> > >> only covers 2012, 2011 and 2010, not earlier data. I suspect if there
> > >> are XML files on the Census Bureau site equivalent to the ones in
> > >> acs.r I could hack up the scripts to use them without much trouble if
> > >> you have a use for this.
> > >>
> > >> As far as I can tell, choropleth.R only goes down to the county level,
> > >> not census tract, block group or block. I'm also talking to Ramnath
> > >> Vaidyanathan of rCharts (http://ramnathv.github.io/rCharts/) about
> > >> making Census choropleth maps using Leaflet.js, which will rended
> > >> automagically on Github Pages. I'm going to try to hack something up
> > >> for that this week in the above-linked project.
> > >>
> > >> On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 7:13 PM, <arilamstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> > Hi Ezra,
> > >> >
> > >> > Thanks for including this update. I'm having a tough time figuring out
> > >> > what
> > >> > data is available via acs.R. From what you've said before, I gather
> > >> > that
> > >> > it's "whatever is available via the Census API". But that is also not
> > >> > clear
> > >> > to me. For example, I found this page on the census website, which I
> > >> > think
> > >> > lists all ACS ever conducted:
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> > http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/help/jsf/pages/metadata.xhtml?lang=en&type=
> survey&id=survey.en.ACS_ACS
> > >> >
> > >> > But when I tried to get the 2005 or 2007 ACS I get an error message and
> > >> > lots
> > >> > of warnings. Do you have any documentation of what data your package
> > >> > supports retrieving?
> > >> >
> > >> > I am interested in making animated gifs where each frame is a choropleth
> > >> > of
> > >> > some demographic measurement at a particular year. Right now that's
> > >> > difficult because I'm just going hit or miss thru the list, and it seems
> > >> > to
> > >> > be a lot of misses.
> > >> >
> > >> > Also, in version 1.0 of choroplethr I am just using the 2011 (default)
> > >> > ACS.
> > >> > In subsequent versions I would like users to use whatever (year, span)
> > >> > combinations acs.R supports. I would also like to distribute a list of
> > >> > available data with my code, but right now I don't have one.
> > >> >
> > >> > Thanks.
> > >> >
> > >> > Ari
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> > On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Ezra Haber Glenn <eglenn at mit.edu>
> > >> > wrote:
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >> Dear acs.R folks:
> > >> >>
> > >> >> As some of you have noticed, the new five-year Census ACS data has
> > >> >> just come out (see <http://www.census.gov/developers/data/>), and is
> > >> >> now available via the Census API. To make sure you are able to fetch
> > >> >> the freshest possible data to play with in R, I’ve updated the acs.R
> > >> >> package to version 1.2, which now includes full support for the
> > >> >> 2008–2012 ACS data.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> The latest version is now available on the CRAN repository -- see
> > >> >> <http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/acs/index.html>. If you’ve
> > >> >> already installed the package in the past, you can easily update with
> > >> >> the update.packages() command; if you’ve never installed it, you can
> > >> >> just as easily install it for the first time, by simply typing
> > >> >> install.packages(“acs”). In either case, be sure to load the library
> > >> >> after installing by typing library(acs), and install (or re-install)
> > >> >> an API key with api.key.install() — see the documentation and the
> > >> >> latest version of the acs user guide for more info.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> To get the latest data, just continue to use the acs.fetch() function
> > >> >> as usual, but specify endyear=2012. (By default, endyear is set to
> > >> >> 2011 if no year is explicitly passed to acs.fetch, and I didn’t want
> > >> >> to change this for fear of breaking existing user scripts. In the
> > >> >> future, we might to rethink this, so that it selects the most recent
> > >> >> endyear by default. Thoughts?)
> > >> >>
> > >> >> (Note: It might take a day or two for the updates to percolate through
> > >> >> the CRAN system. If you update and you’re not sure which version you
> > >> >> are using, you can always type packageVersion(“acs”) to find out.)
> > >> >> --
> > >> >> Ezra Haber Glenn, AICP
> > >> >> Department of Urban Studies and Planning
> > >> >> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> > >> >> 77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 7-337
> > >> >> Cambridge, MA 02139
> > >> >> eglenn at mit.edu
> > >> >> http://dusp.mit.edu/faculty/ezra-glenn |
> > >> >> http://eglenn.scripts.mit.edu/citystate/
> > >> >> 617.253.2024 (w)
> > >> >> 617.721.7131 (c)
> > >> >>
> > >> >> _______________________________________________
> > >> >> acs-r mailing list
> > >> >> acs-r at mit.edu
> > >> >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/acs-r
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> > _______________________________________________
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> > >> > acs-r at mit.edu
> > >> > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/acs-r
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism on a Stick
> > >> http://j.mp/CompJournoStickOverview
> > >>
> > >> My poltergeist can beat up your zeitgeist.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism on a Stick
> > http://j.mp/CompJournoStickOverview
> >
> > My poltergeist can beat up your zeitgeist.
>
> --
> Ezra Haber Glenn, AICP
> Department of Urban Studies and Planning
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> 77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 7-337
> Cambridge, MA 02139
> eglenn at mit.edu
> http://dusp.mit.edu/faculty/ezra-glenn | http://eglenn.scripts.mit.edu/citystate/
> 617.253.2024 (w)
> 617.721.7131 (c)
>
>
--
Ezra Haber Glenn, AICP
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 7-337
Cambridge, MA 02139
eglenn at mit.edu
http://dusp.mit.edu/faculty/ezra-glenn | http://eglenn.scripts.mit.edu/citystate/
617.253.2024 (w)
617.721.7131 (c)
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