Supported Geographies

Geographies

getcensus supports most, but not all, geographies supported by the Census Bureau API.1 Users who are requesting data for multiple years should be aware that ACS geography definitions may change between years; see ACS Table & Geography Changes on the Census Bureau website.

A list of geographies supported by getcensus can be found below. For some geographies, users may specify an abbreviation rather than the full name. The Options column indicates whether statefips() or countyfips() may be specified with a given geography. Bold indicates the option is required with a given geography.

Name Abbreviation Options
us
region
division
state statefips
county co statefips
* county subdivision cousub statefips, countyfips
* tract statefips, countyfips
* block group bg statefips, countyfips
place statefips
* zip code tabulation area zcta statefips
* state legislative district (upper chamber) sldu statefips
* state legislative district (lower chamber) sldl statefips
congressional district cd statefips
school district (elementary) elsd statefips
school district (secondary) scsd statefips
school district (unified) unsd statefips
public use microdata area puma statefips
alaska native regional corporation anrc statefips
american indian area/alaska native area/hawaiian home land aiannh
metropolitan statistical area/micropolitan statistical area metro statefips
combined statistical area cbsa
new england city and town area necta
combined new england city and town area cnecta
urban area urban
* only 5-year estimates are available for this geography
only 5-year estimates are available when statefips() is specified with this geography
may not be specified starting with the 2020 5-year estimates (2019 for subject tables)

Geographic Components

Geographic components are division of a geographic unit by certain criteria. getcensus does not support all geographic components available on the Census Bureau API.2

An example: getcensus [variable IDs], geography(state) geocomponents(H0 C0) will return two observations for each state: one for the portion of the state not in a metropolitan statistical area (“H0”), and one for the portion of the state in a metropolitan statistical area (“C0”).

Available with geography() us, region, division, or state
Code Description
00 Total
H0 Not in metropolitan statistical area
C0 In metropolitan statistical area
C1 In metropolitan statistical area: not in principal city
C2 In metropolitan statistical area: in principal city
E0 In micropolitan statistical area
A0 In metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area
E1 In micropolitan statistical area: in principal city
E2 In micropolitan statistical area: not in principal city
G0 Not in metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area
01 Urban
43 Rural
Available with geography(us) only
Code Description
* 89 American Indian Reservation and Trust Land: Federal
90 American Indian Reservation and Trust Land: State
91 Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area
92 Tribal Designated Statistical Area
93 Alaska Native Village Statistical Area
94 State Designated Tribal Statistical Area
* 95 Hawaiian Home Land
* only 5-year estimates are available for this geographic component
1-year estimates are not avaialble for this geographic component
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