Get Census Population Data by Age and County

Downloads and processes U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for a specified state and county, organized by age groups. Supports single-year age data with optional sex disaggregation.

Usage

getCensusData(
  state_fips,
  county_name,
  year = 2024,
  age_groups = NULL,
  by_sex = FALSE,
  csv_path = NULL,
  cache_dir = NULL,
  verbose = FALSE
)

Arguments

state_fips

Two-digit FIPS code for the state (e.g., "49" for Utah)

county_name

Name of the county (e.g., "Salt Lake County")

year

Census estimate year: 2020-2024 for July 1 estimates, or 2020.1 for April 1, 2020 base

age_groups

Vector of age limits for grouping (e.g., c(0, 5, 18, 65)). Default NULL returns single-year ages 0-85+

by_sex

Logical, if TRUE returns separate male/female groups

csv_path

Optional path to a previously downloaded census CSV file. If provided, data will be read from this file instead of downloading. Use cache_dir for automatic caching.

cache_dir

Optional directory path for caching downloaded census files. If provided, the function will check for an existing cached file and use it, or download and save a new one. Default is NULL (no caching). Use "." for current directory or specify a custom path like "~/census_cache"

verbose

Logical, if TRUE prints messages about data loading and age aggregation. Default is FALSE.

Value

A list containing:

county

County name

state

State name

year

Census year

total_pop

Total population

age_pops

Vector of populations by age group

age_labels

Labels for each age group

sex_labels

If by_sex=TRUE, labels indicating sex

data

Full filtered data frame

Examples

# Use the included example data (recommended for package examples)
slc_data <- getCensusData(
  state_fips = "49", 
  county_name = "Salt Lake County",
  year = 2024,
  csv_path = getCensusDataPath()
)

# Get age groups without sex disaggregation
slc_grouped <- getCensusData(
  state_fips = "49",
  county_name = "Salt Lake County", 
  year = 2024,
  age_groups = c(0, 5, 18, 65),
  csv_path = getCensusDataPath()
)

# Get age groups by sex
slc_by_sex <- getCensusData(
  state_fips = "49",
  county_name = "Salt Lake County",
  year = 2024, 
  age_groups = c(0, 5, 18, 65),
  by_sex = TRUE,
  csv_path = getCensusDataPath()
)

# \donttest{
# Download from web (requires internet)
slc_web <- getCensusData(
  state_fips = "49",
  county_name = "Salt Lake County",
  year = 2024
)

# Use caching to avoid repeated downloads
slc_cached <- getCensusData(
  state_fips = "49",
  county_name = "Salt Lake County",
  year = 2024,
  cache_dir = "~/census_cache"
)
# }