Hello!
I am working on a research project that involves collecting 28 variables from ACS data. I have been working with tidycensus and have figured out my R code to get me what I want in Rstudio, but I cannot find an extensive list of variable names to input in the get_acs(....variables=XYZ) function. When I use the load_variables function, I feel like I am either not getting the full list or the variable is too granular. For example, I need to know what percentage of people have a bachelor's degree or higher at the census tract level, but the ACS5 variables break it down too far (age, gender, etc.). I found a couple for my table, but not for all of the ones I need. I have looked to see if the online ACS data tables had it listed next to the variable description and couldn't find it.
My ask is: does anyone know the ACS variable names for these? and/or where I can find them on the census website? I'm looking for 2021 ACS 5-year estimate data.
Thanks very much!
-A stressed PhD student
Very good question. Field desc are often terrible and you would need the universe. I don't have the answer but have wanted to do a mapping with all the field names. There are pieces of the puzzle here and there but no comprehensive data dictionary. I still load a desc file for every single table I want to pull. I pull some of that data (although at the county level, also no R just API). for example; https://api.census.gov/data/2021/acs/acs5?get=B29002_001E,B29002_002E,B29002_003E,B29002_004E,B29002_005E,B29002_006E,B29002_007E,B29002_008E,NAME&for=county:*
pulls all the ed levels for all counties. I am not an expert here, but I am fairly sure that asking for foreign born and moved at the tract level will give you null values or -99999999 or -666666666 etc. as diff tables respond differently (R may do this much better). So, I think that understanding what data is available before you tie yourself to a specific variable is critical. I think I may have around half of your list with table and field name if that will help. I usually spend time on this over the weekend and I have a new grandchild keeping me busy. Again not an expert but I could give you around 100 ACS field names for everything I pull, might give you around half of what you need.