Download and use Census TIGER/Line shapefiles in R
tigris is an R package that allows users to directly download and use TIGER/Line shapefiles (https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-line.html) from the US Census Bureau.
To install the package from CRAN, issue the following command in R:
install.packages('tigris')
Or, get the development version from GitHub:
devtools::install_github('walkerke/tigris')
In version 0.6:
- You are now able to specify a custom cache directory for your data. To set the cache directory, use the new
tigris_cache_dir()function:
library(tigris)
tigris_cache_dir("PATH TO YOUR CUSTOM CACHE DIRECTORY")
# Restart R
options(tigris_use_cache = TRUE)-
tigris now defaults to the 2016 TIGER/Line and cartographic boundary shapefiles.
-
Thanks to contributors from Transport Foundry (https://github.com/transportfoundry), tigris now includes some geolocator functions. For example, to find out the Census block ID of a given address:
call_geolocator("2850 S University Dr", "Fort Worth", "TX")
Address (2850 S University Dr Fort Worth TX) returned more than one address match. The first match was returned.
[1] "484391042014000"- Stay tuned for batch geocoding support in a future release!
To learn how to use the package, I'd recommend the following materials:
- My article in The R Journal, "tigris: An R Package to Access and Work with Geographic Data from the US Census Bureau"
- A webinar I gave with Ari Lamstein on tigris in April 2017
Available datasets:
Please note: cartographic boundary files in tigris are not available for 2011 and 2012.
| Function | Datasets available | Years available |
|---|---|---|
| nation | cartographic (1:5m; 1:20m) | 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| divisions | cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| regions | cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| states | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| counties | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| tracts | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| block_groups | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| blocks | TIGER/Line | 2000, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| places | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| pumas | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| school_districts | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| zctas | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2000, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| congressional_districts (114th Congress) | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 2014, 2015 |
| state_legislative_districts | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| voting_districts | TIGER/Line | 2012 |
| area_water | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| linear_water | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| coastline | TIGER/Line | 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| core_based_statistical_areas | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| combined_statistical_areas | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k; 1:5m; 1:20m) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| metro_divisions | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| new_england | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| county_subdivisions | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| urban_areas | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| primary_roads | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| primary_secondary_roads | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| roads | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| rails | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| native_areas | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| alaska_native_regional_corporations | TIGER/Line; cartographic (1:500k) | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| tribal_block_groups | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| tribal_census_tracts | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| tribal_subdivisions_national | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| landmarks | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| military | TIGER/Line | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 |