Input · Context data

US Census (ACS)

Fetches American Community Survey estimates, such as population, income, age and housing, for US states, counties, tracts, ZIP areas and more. Needs a Census API key saved in Credentials.

Also known as: Demographics

How it works

Geography sets the level, Census tract by default, from State down to Block group, and the nationwide levels (ZIP code tabulation areas, metro areas, urban areas) that take no State. State picks the state and Counties (optional) narrows it, blank meaning every county. Variable groups adds ready-made sets, Population by default plus Income, Age, Households and Housing; Extra variables takes comma-separated raw ACS ids such as B25003_002E. API key secret names the vault secret holding your Census API key, which the API requires; it is injected at run time and never written into the node's code. Vintage is the ACS 5-year release; consecutive vintages overlap, so do not read their differences as yearly change. The output is attributes only, with name and geoid; unavailable estimates come back NULL rather than as negative sentinels.

Inputs and outputs

Settings

{
  geography: "state" | "county" | "tract" | "block group" | "place" | "county subdivision" | "zcta" | "msa" | "urban area" | "congressional district" | "school district"
  stateFips: string (2 digits, omit for the nationwide levels zcta/msa/urban area)
  countyFips?: string (3 digits; omit for every county in the state)
  presets: string (comma-separated of population,income,age,households,housing)
  extraVariables?: string
  vintage?: string (an ACS 5-year year, 2009-2024)
  secretName: string
}

Example

Median income per tract in one county: Geography Census tract, State Oregon, Counties Multnomah, Variable groups Population and Income. Join on geoid to tract boundaries loaded with a Geo Reader to map it.

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