An Introduction to Census Data with R Using the "tidycensus" Package

Data Librarians and social science information professionals must often use Census data, whether it is for their own projects, or in order to assist researchers or students with their empirical projects. The process of extracting, querying, analyzing, and visualizing these data can be complex, however; as a result, academic libraries often subscribe to commercial software products that make this process more straightforward. However, these solutions are expensive, and may not be interoperable with the tools and platforms that researchers typically use to conduct empirical research.

In recent years, robust open-source software packages to work with Census data (using the Census Bureau's API) have been developed; these packages provide efficient, cost-effective, and user-friendly pathways to exploring Census data. This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to one such package, namely, the "tidycensus" package, which allows users to interact with the Census API using the R programming language. Participants will learn how to identify, locate, and extract data from the Census (and associated datasets) using "tidycensus", and subsequently analyze these data using tools from the R "tidyverse." Completing the workshop will empower participants to use "tidycensus" in their own research, as well as in their consultations with students and researchers who must work with Census data in their projects. Please note that while our focus will be on the United States Census, tools to extract and work with Census and demographic data from other countries using the R programming language will also be introduced.