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Webapp ACS variable explorer which can also render an API call for selected variables using tidycensus in R.

In order to generate the variable names from the ACS label + 'detail', I copied all the variables for 1 year ACS variables and 5 year into a csv. Then I generated label_varname and detail_varname, using scripting to modify the ACS labels (can be found and modified within creating_variable_namecases.ipynb). Those two labels are then combined to create the variable both_varname: {label_varname}__{detail_varname}.

Currently the R or STATA scripting code assigns a new short varname to the variable, and then a longer variable label to retain all identifying information about variables queried from across different tables. You can add more detail to the variable label by selecting different levels in the "label" dropdown.

The variable parsing and csv is available in /public. The UI for this webpage was written by Claude Code, developed in implementation steps demonstrated the commits of this repository. The prompts are similar to what is in the commit messages.

Data Dictionary and Sources

  • Explanation of each variable: 2024 ACS Variable Descriptions

  • ACS Detailed historical codelists and error estimations here.

  • Searchable list of all items within ACS and their Unique IDs here

  • Summary tables of which table/topics are within 1year and 5year ACS and which geographic populations are covered by different tables here

Future plans

  • Add ability to filter by 'universe' of population and then select variables you want (ie whole population, specific race, just women, etc)
  • Add information about each variable when you click on it--
    • Variable definitions and history from Subject Definitions
    • Allocation (imputation) rate over time
    • Margin of error over time
    • If it's in 5y, 1y or both
  • Add wide format option (will have to work around issues with too-long variable names...)
  • Add python, direct-API script rendering options

UI written with Claude code

Deployment Information

React + Vite

This template provides a minimal setup to get React working in Vite with HMR and some ESLint rules.

Currently, two official plugins are available:

React Compiler

The React Compiler is not enabled on this template because of its impact on dev & build performances. To add it, see this documentation.

Expanding the ESLint configuration

If you are developing a production application, we recommend using TypeScript with type-aware lint rules enabled. Check out the TS template for information on how to integrate TypeScript and typescript-eslint in your project.

About

This is a web app which allows the user to navigate through the American Community Survey data for 1yr estimates and copy the necessary variable IDs for using packages like tidycensus.

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