njcensus

Overview

njcensus is an R package for downloading, processing, and analyzing New Jersey census demographic data. It supports both 2010 and 2020 decennial census years and 2020-2023 population estimates. This package provides tools for working with demographic indicators across counties and municipalities.

Features

• Downloads demographic data from the Census Bureau API
• Processes population data by race and gender
• Stores results in a DuckDB database for efficient querying
• Supports both 2010 and 2020 census years
• Includes population estimates for 2021-2023
• Handles county and municipality level data

Installation

You can install the development version of njcensus from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("PrigasG/njcensus")

# Install stable release
install.packages("https://github.com/PrigasG/njcensus/releases/download/v1.0.0/njcensus_1.0.0.tar.gz", 
                 repos = NULL, 
                 type = "source")

Usage

Basic Usage

library(njcensus)

# Initialize using pre-packaged data (recommended)
init_census_data()

# Or fetch fresh data from Census API (optional)
init_census_data(use_packaged_data = FALSE)

# Initialize without population estimates
init_census_data(include_pop_estimates = FALSE)

Accessing Census Data

# Get preview of all demographics
preview <- get_census_data()

# Get data for white males in 2020 (default)
default_data <- get_census_data("white")

# Get specific data
asian_female_2010 <- get_census_data("asian", "female", 2010)

# Filter by county
atlantic_data <- get_census_data("white", counties = "Atlantic")

# Filter by municipality
jersey_city_data <- get_census_data("white", municipalities = "Jersey City")

Population Estimates

# Get population estimates data (agesex is default)
pop_data <- get_pop_estimates()

# Get specific file type
alldata <- get_pop_estimates(file_type = "alldata")

# Filter by county and year
atlantic_2023 <- get_pop_estimates(counties = "Atlantic", years = 2023)

Perfomance Note

The package includes pre-packaged Census data for better performance and reliability:

• Faster initialization
• No API rate limits
• Works offline
• Consistent data access

Available Demographics

The package supports the following demographic groups:

• white
• boaa (Black or African American)
• aian (American Indian and Alaska Native)
• asian
• nhpi (Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander)
• others
• two_more (Two or more races)

Examples

Process census data for a specific year:

# Process 2020 census data
process_census_data(2020)

Querying demographic data

# Get data for specific demographics
data <- get_census_data(
  demographic = "asian",
  gender = "female",
  year = 2020
)

# View the first few rows
head(data)

Database Structure

Data is stored in a DuckDB database with tables named according to the pattern:

• Census data: {demographic}{gender}{year} (e.g., white_male_2020)
• Population estimates: pop_estimates_{file_type} (e.g., pop_estimates_agesex)

Contributing

Please submit issues and pull requests on GitHub. Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Authors

George Arthur - Initial work

Acknowledgments

• Census Bureau API documentation
• DuckDB documentation
• R Spatial community