ACS Data Users Group

Hello folks,

I'm working on a project where I'm trying to build a median income estimate for a larger, non-census defined area. We're essentially aggregating municipalities (county subdivisions), into a larger umbrella geography that is not defined by the census bureau (so not a county, msa or things like that). I am wary of using a PUMA to County Subdivision crosswalk because I am not quite sure how that would work with higher income municipalities next to lower-income ones.

Would anyone happen to know a good way of aggregating up to median income for this different kind of geography? Whether through an R script or some other tool? Would love any ideas on how to tackle this.

Thanks,

Peter

Hi Peter -

Not sure if I'm reading your post correctly, but if you're trying to calculate the median income for an aggregated area, you can use the income band ranges to calculate. I wrote a Python script that does it but also have an Excel worksheet. Is that what you're trying to do? I can provide the script and/or excel spreadsheet for examples if that would be helpful.

-Jami

Hi Jami,

Yes that is exactly what I am trying to do. I figured the income bands would play a role, I've used them in a different tool in the past. I would love to see your code/excel sheet if you would be able to forward it along. I can be reached here!

Okay, great. sent it to you via email - hopefully the attachments don't send it to your spam folder.

Hi JamiRae, would it be possible to share these files with me as well? I'm working on a project that requires similar aggregations for a number of ACS tables and median income is one of them. Thanks in advance!

Hi Gustavo. No problem. I put them in a zipfile online. Go here to download the file: https://gisdiva.com/downloads/misc/

See the Readme file for details about it. Some day I'll get this converted to R using TinyCensus to pull the data in. But this works for me for now.

Let me know if you have questions or trouble getting the files.