Access to Canadian census data through the CensusMapper API

This function allows convenient access to Canadian census data and boundary files through the CensusMapper API. An API key is required to retrieve data.

Usage

get_census(
  dataset,
  regions,
  level = NA,
  vectors = c(),
  geo_format = NA,
  resolution = "simplified",
  labels = "detailed",
  use_cache = TRUE,
  quiet = FALSE,
  api_key = Sys.getenv("CM_API_KEY"),
  retry = 0
)

Source

Census data and boundary geographies are reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada 1996; 2001; 2006; 2011; 2016).

Arguments

dataset: A CensusMapper dataset identifier.
regions: A named list of census regions to retrieve. Names must be valid census aggregation levels.
level: The census aggregation level to retrieve, defaults to "Regions". One of "Regions", "PR", "CMA", "CD", "CSD", "CT", "DA", "EA" (for 1996), or "DB" (for 2001-2016).
vectors: An R vector containing the CensusMapper variable names of the census variables to download. If no vectors are specified only geographic data will get downloaded.
geo_format: By default is set to NA and appends no geographic information. To include geographic information with census data, specify one of either "sf" to return an sf object (requires the sf package) or "sp" to return a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame-class object (requires the rgdal package). If user requests geo-spatial data and neither package is available, a context menu will prompt to install the sf package.
resolution: Resolution of the geographic data. By default simplified geometries will be download. For lower level geometries like DB or DA this will be very close to the high resolution data. Simplification generally increases as the geographic aggregation level increases. If high resolution geometries are required then this option can be set to 'high'. By default this setting is set to 'simplified'.
labels: Set to "detailed" by default, but truncated Census variable names can be selected by setting labels = "short". Use label_vectors(...) to return variable label information in detail.
use_cache: If set to TRUE (the default) data will be read from the local cache if available.
quiet: When TRUE, suppress messages and warnings.
api_key: An API key for the CensusMapper API. Defaults to options() and then the CM_API_KEY environment variable.
retry: Integer If greater than zero, automatically retry failed API requests with exponential backoff for specified maximum number of times. Defaults to 0.

Details

For help selecting regions and vectors, see list_census_regions and list_census_vectors, or check out the interactive selection tool at https://censusmapper.ca/api by calling explore_census_vectors()

Examples

# Query the API for data on dwellings in Vancouver, at the census subdivision
# level:
if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
census_data <- get_census(dataset='CA16', regions=list(CMA="59933"),
                          vectors=c("v_CA16_408","v_CA16_409","v_CA16_410"),
                          level='CSD')

# Query the API for data on dwellings in Vancouver, at the census subdivision
# level, and return the associated geography files in \code{sf} format:
census_data <- get_census(dataset='CA16', regions=list(CMA="59933"),
                          vectors=c("v_CA16_408","v_CA16_409","v_CA16_410"),
                          level='CSD', geo_format = "sf")

# Make the same query, but this time drop descriptive vector names:
census_data <- get_census(dataset='CA16', regions=list(CMA="59933"),
                          vectors=c("v_CA16_408","v_CA16_409","v_CA16_410"),
                          level='CSD', geo_format = "sf", labels="short")

# Get details for truncated vectors:
label_vectors(census_data)
} # }