[R] Households per Census block

Tue Aug 4 21:45:49 CEST 2015

Hi Keith,

I would only use install.blk() once. Then just load the
library(UScensus2010blk) like normal on your machine (this should be
relatively fast), redownloading and re-installing each time will be very
expensive (both on download and time).

The SF1 file manual produced by the US Census goes over all the details of
the various variables (http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/sf1.pdf) in
glorious detail; however a lot of the issues arise depending on if you are
interested in individual counts versus household counts and assumptions
thereof.

Best,

-- Zack
---------------------------------------------------------
Zack W.  Almquist
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and School of Statistics
Affiliate, Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 2:31 PM, Keith S Weintraub <kw1958 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Can you give me a for-instance of “populations”? Is there a table or chart
> or list or…
>
> Also I guess that I should leave my R session on for as long as possible
> as “install.blk” takes a really long time to re-upload if that is what it
> is doing.
>
> Does install.blk go to the source every time?
>
> Thanks again.
> ---
> KW
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Aug 4, 2015, at 3:22 PM, Zack Almquist <almquist at umn.edu> wrote:
> >
> > P.S. The US census has different "populations" (or worlds) so make sure
> the housing variable you use is accessing the correct "world."
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > -- Zack
> > ---------------------------------------------------------
> > Zack W.  Almquist
> > Assistant Professor
> > Department of Sociology and School of Statistics
> > Affiliate, Minnesota Population Center
> > University of Minnesota
> >
> > On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 2:12 PM, Zack Almquist <almquist at umn.edu> wrote:
> > Hi Keith,
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Keith S Weintraub <kw1958 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I had to download a bunch of stuff but I got it mostly working.
> >
> > Unfortunately using the alternative method I get the following:
> >
> > > housing<-CensusAPI2010(c("H0010001"), state.fips=state.fips, level =
> c("block"), key, summaryfile = c("sf1"))
> > Error in file(con, "r") : cannot open the connection
> > In addition: Warning message:
> > In file(con, "r") : cannot open: HTTP status was '400 Bad Request’
> >
> > Sorry that is my bad, I didn't verify the variable name at (
> http://api.census.gov/data/2010/sf1/variables.html). This seems to work
> for me, as a quick test:
> >
> > housing<-CensusAPI2010(variables="H0060001", state.fips="06", level =
> c("tract"), key, summaryfile = c("sf1"))
> >
> > So the larger example:
> >
> >  ## Get all states fips code
> > data(countyfips)
> > state.fips<-unique(substr(countyfips$fips,1,2))
> > head(state.fips)
> > length(state.fips) ## will be 51=50 (states)+ 1(DC)
> > ## You will need a census key
> > key<-"YOUR KEY HERE"
> > housing<-CensusAPI2010(c("H0060001"), state.fips=state.fips, level =
> c("block"), key, summaryfile = c("sf1"))
> >
> > should work just fine.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > -- Zack
> > ---------------------------------------------------------
> > Zack W.  Almquist
> > Assistant Professor
> > Department of Sociology and School of Statistics
> > Affiliate, Minnesota Population Center
> > University of Minnesota
> >
> > I have a feeling that this is not a problem with the API.
> >
> > Thanks for your help,
> > KW
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Aug 3, 2015, at 2:12 PM, Zack Almquist <almquist at umn.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Anthony and Keith Weintraub,
> > >
> > > Here is a way to do what you are asking using the UScensus2010
> packages:
> > >
> > > ## latest version of the package, not yet on CRAN
> > > install.packages("UScensus2010", repos="http://R-Forge.R-project.org")
> > > library(UScensus2010)
> > > install.blk()
> > > library(UScensus2010blk)
> > > ### You will want the H0010001 variable (see help(alabama.blk10))
> > > ### Other variables are also available
> > > ### You can use the new api function in UScensus2010 to get arbitrary
> variables from SF1 and acs
> > >
> > > data(states.names)
> > > head(states.names)
> > > state.blk.housing<-vector("list",length(states.names))
> > > ## notice this could be greatly spead up using the library(parallel)
> > > ## with mclapply
> > > ## This will be somewhat slow b/c of so much spatial data
> > > for(i in 1:length(states.names)){
> > >       data(list=paste(states.names[i],"blk10",sep="."))
> > >       temp<-get(paste(states.names[i],"blk10",sep="."))
> > >        #unique b/c more shapefiles than fips
> > >       state.blk.housing[[i]]<-unique(temp at data[,c("fips","H0010001")])
> > >       print(i)
> > >       rm(paste(states.names,"blk10",sep="."))
> > > }
> > >
> > > ###########
> > > # alternatively Using the US Census API function in the new
> UScensus2010 package
> > > ###########
> > >
> > > ## Get all states fips code
> > > data(countyfips)
> > > state.fips<-unique(substr(countyfips$fips,1,2))
> > > head(state.fips)
> > > length(state.fips) ## will be 51=50 (states)+ 1(DC)
> > > ## You will need a census key
> > > key<-"YOUR KEY HERE"
> > > housing<-CensusAPI2010(c("H0010001"), state.fips=state.fips, level =
> c("block"), key, summaryfile = c("sf1"))
> > >
> > > Best,
> > >
> > > -- Zack
> > > ---------------------------------------------------------
> > > Zack W.  Almquist
> > > Assistant Professor
> > > Department of Sociology and School of Statistics
> > > Affiliate, Minnesota Population Center
> > > University of Minnesota
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Anthony Damico <ajdamico at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > hi, ccing the package maintainer.  one alternative is to pull the
> HU100 variable directly from the census bureau's summary files: that
> variable starts at position 328 and ends at 336.  just modify this loop and
> you'll get a table with one-record-per-census-block in every state.
> > >
> > >
> https://github.com/davidbrae/swmap/blob/master/how%20to%20map%20the%20consumer%20expenditure%20survey.R#L104
> > >
> > > (1) line 134 change the very last -9 to 9
> > > (2) line 137 between "pop100" and "intptlat" add an "hu100"
> > >
> > >
> > > summary file docs-
> > >
> > > http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/sf1.pdf#page=18
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Keith S Weintraub <kw1958 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > Folks,
> > >
> > > I am using the UScensus2010 package and I am trying to figure out the
> number of households per census block.
> > >
> > > There are a number of possible data downloads in the package but
> apparently I am not smart enough to figure out which data-set is
> appropriate and what functions to use.
> > >
> > > Any help or pointers or links would be greatly appreciated.
> > >
> > > Thanks for your time,
> > > Best,
> > > KW
> > >
> > > ______________________________________________
> > > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > > PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

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