Look up the human-readable label for one or more ACS variable codes

Returns a data.table joining the input codes to the table title, label, and population universe from acs_table_shells. Useful for turning the cryptic column names that get_acs_new() returns (e.g. "B01001_001") into something a reader can understand.

Usage

acs_label(variable_id)

Arguments

variable_id

character vector of ACS variable codes (e.g. "B01001_001"). The trailing margin-of-error variant ("B01001_M001") is automatically normalized to the estimate variable, so MOE columns get their estimate's label.

Value

a data.table with one row per input, columns: variable_id (as supplied), table_id, label, table_title, universe. Unmatched codes get NA in the lookup columns.

Details

The shipped lookup is built from the 2022 5-year vintage of the Census table shells. Labels for tables that exist across multiple vintages are stable; for unfamiliar tables, double-check the official documentation at https://data.census.gov/.

Examples

 acs_label(c("B01001_001", "B01001_M001", "C16001_002"))
#>    variable_id table_id              label
#>         <char>   <char>             <char>
#> 1:  B01001_001   B01001             Total:
#> 2: B01001_M001   B01001             Total:
#> 3:  C16001_002   C16001 Speak only English
#>                                                    table_title
#>                                                         <char>
#> 1:                                                  Sex by Age
#> 2:                                                  Sex by Age
#> 3: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over
#>                       universe
#>                         <char>
#> 1:            Total population
#> 2:            Total population
#> 3: Population 5 years and over