IPUMS NHGIS Shapefile Metadata
An NHGIS shapefile is a geometry file for geographic information systems (GIS) in shapefile format. An in-depth introduction is availble on the NHGIS website.
Get a List of All Shapefiles
This API call will return a list of all available shapefiles.
my_headers = {"Authorization": my_key}
url = "https://api.ipums.org/metadata/nhgis/shapefiles?version=v1"
nhgis_metadata = requests.get(url, headers=my_headers)
pprint(nhgis_metadata.json())
# Results
[{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'State',
'name': 'us_state_1790_tl2000',
'sequence': 1,
'year': '1790'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1790_tl2000',
'sequence': 2,
'year': '1790'},
{'basis': '2008 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1790_tl2008',
'sequence': 3,
'year': '1790'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'State',
'name': 'us_state_1800_tl2000',
'sequence': 4,
'year': '1800'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1800_tl2000',
'sequence': 5,
'year': '1800'},
{'basis': '2008 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1800_tl2008',
'sequence': 6,
'year': '1800'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'State',
'name': 'us_state_1810_tl2000',
'sequence': 7,
'year': '1810'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1810_tl2000',
'sequence': 8,
'year': '1810'},
{'basis': '2008 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1810_tl2008',
'sequence': 9,
'year': '1810'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'State',
'name': 'us_state_1820_tl2000',
'sequence': 10,
'year': '1820'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1820_tl2000',
'sequence': 11,
'year': '1820'},
{'basis': '2008 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1820_tl2008',
'sequence': 12,
'year': '1820'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'State',
'name': 'us_state_1830_tl2000',
'sequence': 13,
'year': '1830'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1830_tl2000',
'sequence': 14,
'year': '1830'},
{'basis': '2008 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1830_tl2008',
'sequence': 15,
'year': '1830'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'State',
'name': 'us_state_1840_tl2000',
'sequence': 16,
'year': '1840'},
{'basis': '2000 TIGER/Line +',
'extent': 'United States',
'geographic_level': 'County',
'name': 'us_county_1840_tl2000',
'sequence': 17,
...url <- "https://api.ipums.org/metadata/nhgis/shapefiles?version=v1"
result <- GET(url, add_headers(Authorization = my_key))
res_df <- content(result, "parsed", simplifyDataFrame = TRUE)
head(res_df, n = 20L) # Contains metadata
# Results
name year geographic_level extent basis
1 us_state_1790_tl2000 1790 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
2 us_county_1790_tl2000 1790 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
3 us_county_1790_tl2008 1790 County United States 2008 TIGER/Line +
4 us_state_1800_tl2000 1800 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
5 us_county_1800_tl2000 1800 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
6 us_county_1800_tl2008 1800 County United States 2008 TIGER/Line +
7 us_state_1810_tl2000 1810 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
8 us_county_1810_tl2000 1810 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
9 us_county_1810_tl2008 1810 County United States 2008 TIGER/Line +
10 us_state_1820_tl2000 1820 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
11 us_county_1820_tl2000 1820 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
12 us_county_1820_tl2008 1820 County United States 2008 TIGER/Line +
13 us_state_1830_tl2000 1830 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
14 us_county_1830_tl2000 1830 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
15 us_county_1830_tl2008 1830 County United States 2008 TIGER/Line +
16 us_state_1840_tl2000 1840 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
17 us_county_1840_tl2000 1840 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
18 us_county_1840_tl2008 1840 County United States 2008 TIGER/Line +
19 us_state_1850_tl2000 1850 State United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
20 us_county_1850_tl2000 1850 County United States 2000 TIGER/Line +
sequence
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
8 8
9 9
10 10
11 11
12 12
13 13
14 14
15 15
16 16
17 17
18 18
19 19
20 20curl -X GET \
https://api.ipums.org/metadata/nhgis/shapefiles?version=v1 \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H "Authorization: $MY_KEY"
# Results
[
{
"name": "us_state_1790_tl2000",
"year": "1790",
"geographic_level": "State",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 1
},
{
"name": "us_county_1790_tl2000",
"year": "1790",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 2
},
{
"name": "us_county_1790_tl2008",
"year": "1790",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2008 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 3
},
{
"name": "us_state_1800_tl2000",
"year": "1800",
"geographic_level": "State",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 4
},
{
"name": "us_county_1800_tl2000",
"year": "1800",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 5
},
{
"name": "us_county_1800_tl2008",
"year": "1800",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2008 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 6
},
{
"name": "us_state_1810_tl2000",
"year": "1810",
"geographic_level": "State",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 7
},
{
"name": "us_county_1810_tl2000",
"year": "1810",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 8
},
{
"name": "us_county_1810_tl2008",
"year": "1810",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2008 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 9
},
{
"name": "us_state_1820_tl2000",
"year": "1820",
"geographic_level": "State",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 10
},
{
"name": "us_county_1820_tl2000",
"year": "1820",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2000 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 11
},
{
"name": "us_county_1820_tl2008",
"year": "1820",
"geographic_level": "County",
"extent": "United States",
"basis": "2008 TIGER/Line +",
"sequence": 12
},
{
"name": "us_state_1830_tl2000",
"year": "1830",
"geographic_level": "State",
...Shapefile Attributes
name: The unique identifier of the time series table.year: The survey year in which the file’s represented areas were used for tabulations, which may be different than the vintage of the represented areas. See .geographic_level: The geographic level of the shapefile.extent: The geographic extent which is covered by the shapefile.basis: The derivation source of the shapefile.sequence: The order the shapefile in which appears in the metadata API.