Simple US Census Data Feed?

[ThomasDay]

Hello all,

This probably falls into the "is it really this hard?" category, but I was hoping to find a simple way to get Population and Income data by zip code (a Zip Code Tabulation Area).  The most recent Census or whatever the right term is would be great. 

There are certainly more metrics I'd like to explore, but if I could just get one or two metrics...with luck I could keep augmenting my query to include other available stats.

If this is being too lazy for your taste, would you point me to a good resource to get at this...the US Census Data site is massive and seemingly for "pros" in this space.  I hope I don't need to be an expert before I get my first extract.

Thank you all in advance!

Tom

[edhans]

You are probably going to have to start here - https://data.census.gov/cedsci/ -  and become a bit of an expert. Some of the data is available via API, and some is exportable to Excel/CSV after a query. Not sure how much will be available via a simple web request.

[v-lid-msft]

Hi @ThomasDay ,

Sorry for late reply, we cannot understand your requirement clearly, are you missing some fields when using Web Connector to get some data from a feed url?

Best regards,

[ThomasDay]

Hi @v-lid-msft ,

Thank you very much for getting back to me.

I guess I was asking for something even more basic.  I'm looking for an example Power Query which access a census data set and pulls it into a data file.  I'm just stuck on JSON (unfamiliar), and Census (complex) and I am having a hard time getting started.  If I can get a toe in the door...I can start working my way into the data.

Thanks for checking in and any ideas would be appreciated.

Tom

[ThomasDay · Accepted solution]

Hello all and @v-lid-msft 

I did piece together a simple query using a json example from the census data api.  Here it is if anyone is looking to jumpstart their census exploration process.  It's easy to get an API key...just "apply" here: https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html As you look thru the api offerings, you'll see descriptions, variables, geographies (who knew this could be so confusing), groups, examples (sample api URL's)...which I've put in the Json.Document Function below in the simple PowerBI query..  There are keywords and parameters but this gets anyone going.

I've lined out the key in the example below

The table that this produces is shown, in part, here.  So that gets stuff into PowerBI

Ok, enjoy,

Tom