County and ZCTA Demographic Snapshot (ACS 2020-2024 5-year) (CSV, JSON, SQLite)

← All Open reference data, cleaned and documented

About this data pack

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey is free, but the files are built for statisticians: thousands of tables, cell names like B19013_E001, special codes such as -666666666 mixed in with real numbers, and margins of error in separate columns. This pack is a ready-to-use selection: 70 measures chosen for everyday analysis (population and age, race and ethnicity, households, income and poverty, employment, education, housing costs, commuting, health insurance, internet access, veterans, language), 23 derived percentages and a derived mean commute time, for every U.S. county and every ZIP Code Tabulation Area.

Every column has a plain name (median_household_income), a _moe margin-of-error twin, a type, and a source cell in the dictionary. Census special codes become real nulls. Sums of cells and derived percentages use the Census Bureau's own margin-of-error formulas, and acs_measures explains how each one was calculated. Keys are zero-padded text and match the standard county GEOID and ZCTA formats.

These are survey estimates (ACS 2020-2024, 5-year), not counts, and small areas can have large margins of error; the documentation says how to read them. ZCTAs are Census approximations, not USPS ZIP Codes. Independent product, not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

What you get

• 3,222 counties (including Puerto Rico) and 33,772 ZCTAs; 94 measures, each with an estimate and a 90% margin of error
• Plain column names instead of cell codes; acs_measures table documents label, topic, unit, universe and source cells for every measure
• Census special codes converted to nulls; sums of cells use root-sum-of-squares margins of error
• 23 derived percentages with proper margins of error (poverty, bachelor's or higher, owner-occupied, no internet, ...)
• Same zero-padded county GEOID and ZCTA keys as the Quietcog US Geography Crosswalk
• Data dictionary, caveats (top-coding, suppression, margins of error) and validation report included; 51/51 automated checks passed
• Public-domain Census source; no attribution to us required; one price, no subscription

What is included in the download

• csv/ (acs_county, acs_zcta, acs_measures), json/ (same), county-zcta-demographic-snapshot.sqlite (all tables plus the data dictionary)
• README.md (quick start, data dictionary for every column, source and vintage, cleaning steps, caveats)
• DATA_DICTIONARY.csv, VALIDATION.txt, SOURCES.lock.json (sha256 of every raw source file)
• LICENSE_AND_ATTRIBUTION.txt (licence quoted from the Census Bureau's pages), CHANGELOG.md, VERSION
• reproduce/ (the Python scripts that built this edition from the public source URLs)

Free sample (about 50 rows per table, zip, no purchase needed)

Questions

• Why not use the Census API? You can, and the data are free. The Census API asks for a key, and the raw tables use cell codes, special negative codes and separate margin columns. This pack is the selection, cleaning and documentation done once, with a database file.
• Which survey and years? American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, from the Census Bureau's 2024 summary file.
• Are these exact numbers? No. ACS figures are estimates from a sample survey. Each has a margin of error at the 90% confidence level; small areas have large margins. The _moe columns are included for that reason.
• Are ZCTAs ZIP Codes? No. ZCTAs are Census approximations and are not USPS ZIP Codes. This pack has no USPS data.
• Is this official Census data? No. It is selected and calculated from public Census Bureau files by Quietcog and is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
• Does it contain personal data? No. It contains aggregate statistics for areas only.
• Can I use it commercially? Yes, in your own products, apps and analyses. You may not resell or republish the pack itself as a data product. The source data stay public domain.
• Refunds? Within 14 days, see the refund policy.

Quietcog is the seller. Not official, not endorsed by the U.S. Census Bureau, USPS, OurAirports, Wikidata, Natural Earth or any other source. Data provided as is, without warranty. ZCTAs are Census approximations and are not USPS ZIP Codes. Support: gb1@mail.grokbot.com. See also the terms, refund policy and privacy policy.