Load variables from a decennial Census or American Community Survey dataset to search in R

Source: R/search_variables.R

Finding the right variables to use with get_decennial() or get_acs() can be challenging; load_variables() attempts to make this easier for you. Choose a year and a dataset to search for variables; those variables will be loaded from the Census website as an R data frame. It is recommended that RStudio users use the View() function to interactively browse and filter these variables to find the right variables to use.

load_variables(
  year,
  dataset = c("sf1", "sf2", "sf3", "sf4", "pl", "dhc", "dp", "ddhca", "as", "gu", "mp",
    "vi", "acsse", "dpas", "dpgu", "dpmp", "dpvi", "dhcvi", "dhcgu", "dhcvi", "dhcas",
    "acs1", "acs3", "acs5", "acs1/profile", "acs3/profile", "acs5/profile",
    "acs1/subject", "acs3/subject", "acs5/subject", "acs1/cprofile", "acs5/cprofile",
    "sf2profile", "sf3profile", "sf4profile", "aian", "aianprofile", "cd110h", "cd110s",
    "cd110hprofile", "cd110sprofile", "sldh", "slds", "sldhprofile", "sldsprofile",
    "cqr", "cd113", "cd113profile", 
     "cd115", "cd115profile", "cd116", "plnat",
    "cd118"),
  cache = FALSE
)

Arguments

year

The year for which you are requesting variables. Either the year or endyear of the decennial Census or ACS sample. 5-year ACS data is available from 2009 through 2020. 1-year ACS data is available from 2005 through 2021, with the exception of 2020.

dataset

The dataset name as used on the Census website. See the Details in this documentation for a full list of dataset names.

cache

Whether you would like to cache the dataset for future access, or load the dataset from an existing cache. Defaults to FALSE.

Value

A tibble of variables from the requested dataset.

Details

load_variables() returns three columns by default: name, which is the Census ID code to be supplied to the variables parameter in get_decennial() or get_acs(); label, which is a detailed description of the variable; and concept, which provides information about the table that a given variable belongs to. For 5-year ACS detailed tables datasets, a fourth column, geography, tells you the smallest geography at which a given variable is available.

Datasets available are as follows: "sf1", "sf2", "sf3", "sf4", "pl", "dhc", "dp", "dhca", "ddhca", "as", "gu", "mp", "vi", "acsse", "dpas", "dpgu", "dpmp", "dpvi", "dhcvi", "dhcgu", "dhcvi", "dhcas", "acs1", "acs3", "acs5", "acs1/profile", "acs3/profile", "acs5/profile", "acs1/subject", "acs3/subject", "acs5/subject", "acs1/cprofile", "acs5/cprofile", "sf2profile", "sf3profile", "sf4profile", "aian", "aianprofile", "cd110h", "cd110s", "cd110hprofile", "cd110sprofile", "sldh", "slds", "sldhprofile", "sldsprofile", "cqr", "cd113", "cd113profile", "cd115", "cd115profile", "cd116", "cd118", and "plnat".

Examples

if (FALSE) {
v15 <- load_variables(2015, "acs5", cache = TRUE)
View(v15)
}