census
A wrapper for the US Census Bureau's API
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Census is a stable, actively maintained wrapper with low install friction (one dependency), no known vulnerabilities, and permissive licensing. Install it if you need programmatic access to US Census data; it eliminates manual API construction and provides geographic convenience methods. The only prerequisite is obtaining a free Census API key.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires a Census API key obtained from https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html before making any data requests.
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with only requests as a runtime dependency.
- Active maintenance with recent release (91 days ago) and 681 repository stars indicate ongoing support.
License · maintenance · safety
BSD (permissive) — BSD permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.
last release 2026-05-15 (91 days) · last repo commit 2026-05-15 · 681 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 198,687 downloads/mo, #9,722 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install census
from census import Census
c = Census("YOUR_API_KEY")
data = c.acs5.state(('NAME', 'B25034_010E'), '24')- Whether the package supports Python 3.x versions or has any minimum Python version requirement (not specified in metadata).
- Performance characteristics when querying large geographic areas or multiple years of historical data.
What it is and what it does
Census is a lightweight client library that abstracts the Census Bureau's HTTP API into Python method calls. It handles the low-level details of constructing API requests, managing geographic specifications (FIPS codes, state/county/tract hierarchies), and parsing responses for multiple Census datasets including ACS 5-year, 3-year, and 1-year estimates, as well as Summary File 1 and redistricting data.
The library provides convenience methods for common geographic queries (state, county, tract, congressional district, etc.) and supports year-based queries across historical datasets. It depends only on requests for HTTP communication, making it lightweight to integrate into data pipelines, demographic analysis scripts, or research tools that need programmatic Census access.
Use it for
- Retrieve demographic statistics for a specific state or county to build population reports or dashboards.
- Query historical Census data across multiple years to analyze demographic trends in a geographic area.
- Automate bulk extraction of housing, income, or education metrics for research or policy analysis.
- Build geographic lookup tools that map FIPS codes to Census data for civic tech applications.
- Integrate Census data into data warehouses or ETL pipelines for downstream analysis.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Census is a stable, actively maintained wrapper with low install friction (one dependency), no known vulnerabilities, and permissive licensing. Install it if you need programmatic access to US Census data; it eliminates manual API construction and provides geographic convenience methods. The only prerequisite is obtaining a free Census API key.
Install
census on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with only requests as a runtime dependency. Active maintenance with recent release (91 days ago) and 681 repository stars indicate ongoing support.
Requires a Census API key obtained from https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html before making any data requests.
License in practice
BSD permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.
Quickstart
pip install census
from census import Census
c = Census("YOUR_API_KEY")
data = c.acs5.state(('NAME', 'B25034_010E'), '24')Verify before relying
- Whether the package supports Python 3.x versions or has any minimum Python version requirement (not specified in metadata).
- Performance characteristics when querying large geographic areas or multiple years of historical data.
Package facts
| License | BSD permissive |
| Python support | Not specified |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 1 packagerequests |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 91 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 198,687 / month, #9,722 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python |
Evidence: census-0.8.27-py3-none-any.whl
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See also censusgeocode · spm-calculator · us · geonamescache · uszipcode · pyzipcode · openbb-bls · cellxgene-census · SurveyGizmo · prisma-sase