The U.S. Census Bureau APIs give programmers access to 1,712 different dataset endpoints. This page automatically checks the list of endpoints every day and tracks when datasets are added to or removed from the APIs. Read more about this project.
Recently added and removed datasets
| Change | Endpoint | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Added Aug 7, 2025 | 2025/cps/basic/jul | Microdata |
Current Population Survey: Basic Monthly To provide estimates of employment, unemployment, and other characteristics of the general labor force, of the population as a whole, and of various subgroups of the population. Monthly labor force data for the country are used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine the distribution of funds under the Job Training Partnership Act. These data are collected through combined computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). In addition to the labor force data, the CPS basic funding provides annual data on work experience, income, health insurance, and migration data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), and on school enrollment of the population from the October Supplement. Other supplements, some of which are sponsored by other agencies, are conducted biennially or intermittently. | ||
| Added Jul 31, 2025 | 2022/ecngrmargprof | Aggregate |
Economic Census: Wholesale Trade: Gross Margin, Gross Profit, and their Components for Merchant Wholesalers U.S.: 2022 This dataset presents statistics for Wholesale Trade: Gross Margin, Gross Profit, and their Components for Merchant Wholesalers for the U.S. | ||
| Added Jul 31, 2025 | 2022/ecneoyinv | Aggregate |
Economic Census: Wholesale Trade: Inventories by Valuation Method for the U.S.: 2022 This dataset presents statistics for Wholesale Trade: Inventories by Valuation Method for the U.S. | ||
| Added Jul 31, 2025 | 2020/geoinfo | Aggregate |
2020 Geography Information This dataset will provide users with all geography levels for a given year as well as longitude/latitude and area (land and water) geographic information if available. | ||
| Added Jul 31, 2025 | timeseries/aies/basic | Timeseries |
Annual Integrated Economic Survey: All Sectors: Summary Statistics for Employer Firms in the U.S. and Selected Geographies The Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES) consolidates seven existing annual business surveys into one, replacing the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey, Annual Retail Trade Survey, Annual Survey of Manufacturers, Annual Wholesale Trade Survey, Manufacturer's Unfilled Orders Survey, Report of Organization, and Services Annual Survey. AIES will provide comprehensive national and subnational data on business revenues, expenses, and assets, using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Key statistics include capital expenditures, employment, expenses, inventories, payroll, and sales or revenue. | ||
Note: Dataset titles and descriptions were written by the Census Bureau.
The 1,712 datasets in the APIs are broken down into three categories:
- Microdata datasets contain one record per person or housing unit for a specific vintage (time period.) Regular releases include person-level Current Population Survey and American Community Survey files. These are used for custom analyses.
- Aggregate datasets are already-summarized datasets that contain rows with pre-computed statistics for a specific vintage (time period), usually a year. Popular examples include aggregate American Community Survey, Decennial Census, and Economic Census datasets.
- Timeseries datasets are already-summarized datasets that contain rows with pre-computed statistics over a range of time. Some useful timeseries include annual Small Area Health Insurance Estimates and monthly International Trade data.
| Dataset type | Count |
|---|---|
| Microdata | 936 |
| Aggregate | 693 |
| Timeseries | 83 |
How to use the APIs
Several libraries make it easy to get data in your programming language of choice. The APIs return data in a non-standard JSON response format — I highly recommend using one of these wrapper libraries to access the data. Options include:
- R censusapi: access any dataset in the APIs as soon as it’s released
- R tidycensus: access core datasets including the Decennial Census and American Community Survey with helper functions for analysis
- Python census: access key American Community Survey and Decennial Census datasets
- Stata getcensus: access American Community Survey datasets
The Census Bureau provides guidance and tutorials focused on using their APIs directly in a web browser. You can also access some, but not all, of these datasets at data.census.gov.
Explore the full list of datasets, or see them in R with:
# Load the censusapi package
library(censusapi)
# Bring key metadata into a dataframe
apis <- listCensusApis()
View(apis)