Datapoint level/hierarchy in raw data downloads

Chris Engle over 9 years ago

Hi - Does anyone know if the Census has documentation that explains the hierarchy of data for ACS tables? I'm working with raw data and it doesn't include the indentions that the Census uses. I only see that the TableShells Excel file (attached) shows the hierarchy as formatted indentions.

I'm trying to create a system that will allow me to calculate a 3rd-level datapoint as a % of a 2nd-level datapoint. For example (chosen randomly), calculating the % of children under 6 living with 2 parents that are foreign-born for this table (screenshot attached).

Does this exist?

Thanks for any advice you have.

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Joe Germuska over 9 years ago

As best I can tell, the Census Bureau has no more formal metadata documentation for the ACS. For our CensusReporter.org project, we process that file and use the indents to quantify the "indents."

You can query our API to get our understanding of tables: for the one in your screen shot, you'd use this URL: api.censusreporter.org/.../B05009

the response is JSON formatted. Some more documentation about our API in general is at github.com/.../API.md

I would like to organize some more formal input to the Census Bureau about how we—the data user community, not just Census Reporter—would benefit from formal structured metadata, but I'll admit that I have not found the time to actually take steps towards it.

Maybe with the upcoming 2014 release, we'll be able to document some things more specifically.
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Joe Germuska over 9 years ago

As best I can tell, the Census Bureau has no more formal metadata documentation for the ACS. For our CensusReporter.org project, we process that file and use the indents to quantify the "indents."

You can query our API to get our understanding of tables: for the one in your screen shot, you'd use this URL: api.censusreporter.org/.../B05009

the response is JSON formatted. Some more documentation about our API in general is at github.com/.../API.md

I would like to organize some more formal input to the Census Bureau about how we—the data user community, not just Census Reporter—would benefit from formal structured metadata, but I'll admit that I have not found the time to actually take steps towards it.

Maybe with the upcoming 2014 release, we'll be able to document some things more specifically.
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