ACS Data Users Group

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  • 1.  QGIS, I'm attempting to match CoCs to Census Tracts (I don't think anyone's done it in many years), is QGIS a good choice for a beginner?

    Posted 02-21-2025 04:25 AM

    I am thinking of matching HUD CoCs to Census tracts, or at least trying to do it for CA for a start. There are several programs out there, and just wanted to know any recommendations? It seems that QGIS is popular (and free). I've watched a few YouTube videos and for just a match and merge, it doesnt seem that hard, but I think I would have to do it for each state as I dont think HUD has a master file, just files for each state. So any advice is apprecaited. Not looking for complex things (Just the merge and match), and I assume the HUD files are fairly clean.



  • 2.  RE: QGIS, I'm attempting to match CoCs to Census Tracts (I don't think anyone's done it in many years), is QGIS a good choice for a beginner?

    Posted 02-22-2025 10:40 PM

    After a long day, I think I have CA mapped, and at least for CA there is no overlap between Census Tracts and CoCs. I know this will not be the case in all states. I hope QGIS was the best choice, also I have to get all the steps from downloading and unzipping the files for each state and the match, merge and export to under an hour for each state (best case might be 30-40 min each).

    ST_1 STATE_NAME COCNUM COCNAME Shape_Leng Shape_Area layer path STATEFP COUNTYFP TRACTCE
    CA California CA-500 San Jose/Santa Clara City & County CoC 3.878326 0.341463 CA_500 C:/My_Data/Census_CoC/2024/06_California\CA_500.shp 06 001 443301
    CA California CA-500 San Jose/Santa Clara City & County CoC 3.878326 0.341463 CA_500 C:/My_Data/Census_CoC/2024/06_California\CA_500.shp 06 087 122401


  • 3.  RE: QGIS, I'm attempting to match CoCs to Census Tracts (I don't think anyone's done it in many years), is QGIS a good choice for a beginner?

    Posted 02-22-2025 11:50 PM

    Just create two national layers and match them. There's no need to do it one state at a time.



  • 4.  RE: QGIS, I'm attempting to match CoCs to Census Tracts (I don't think anyone's done it in many years), is QGIS a good choice for a beginner?

    Posted 02-23-2025 03:05 AM

    Yes, thanks, I've spent the day trying to get CA working, but I could just load all the states (after I feel my steps for CA are correct. I might do one more state just to test and verify. I do think there might be some funky stuff somewhere and if I load everything and things break it may be more work than going state by state, but it is worth a try to load all. I'll see what happens.