ACS Data Users Group

If one wants just one state (LA) from the ACS Table Format, do you have to download the whole 11G 5YR zip file and just extract that state? Or is there a way to just get the state that you're interested in?

Thanks.

Hi Doug,

This seems like an application for the summary files (if you don't want to go the traditional data.census.gov route). The summary files are table-based, so you could build a list of your desired table names and then loop through the summary tables and filter for your desired geography.

Pretty straightforward.

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/summary-file.html

Cheers--

AB

Right. But, you need to download each table you'd want individually or download the entire dataset, and then just grab the state you need.

I was hoping that maybe there was a way to grab all tables for one state instead of the entire nation and then getting the state (Louisiana).

You can use the API. If I recollect correctly there are maybe 1400 "B" tables and about 1200 census tracts in LA. Why do you need "all" tables? It takes about 10-20 seconds to download a single table for a single tract.

I was hoping to have all tables for Louisiana so I'd have an existing database that I could easily just use SAS to grab data that I need for current and future products without having to download the files each time I need them.

Was thinking this would save time in the long-run.

Guess I'll jus do it induvially.

You could pull from the MCDC's base tables collection. You can't get all tables for a state at once in a single query, but you can get them in 6 table sets.

For ACS 2018-2022 5-year: https://mcdc.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/uexplore?/data/acs2022/btabs5yr

For state and counties, you'll need: usstcnty00_07, usstcnty08, usstcnty09_16, usstcnty17_20, usstcnty21_24, usstcnty25_29 to get all of the tables. Click the dataset name to open the Dexter query form.

For other geographies, look to the dataset names for hints, e.g. usschoolsuni17_20 contains all tables B17000 through B20999 for all US unified school districts.

Using the Dexter extract program, e.g. https://mcdc.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/broker?_PROGRAM=utils.uex2dex.sas&path=/data/acs2022/btabs5yr&dset=usstcnty00_07&view=0, you'll need to filter on state = 22 in section II of the form to pick up just LA.