US Census Bureau

US Census Bureau Discovery API

Dataset discovery via the DCAT-compliant catalog

Documentation GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 1

GET /.json Get Census Data API Discovery Catalog #

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OpenAPI Specification

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Census Data Discovery API
  description: 'The Census Data API provides programmatic access to over 1,700 datasets

    published by the U.S.'
  version: '2026-05-25'
  contact:
    name: Census Bureau Developer Support
    email: cnmp.developers.list@census.gov
    url: https://www.census.gov/data/developers/about.html
  license:
    name: Creative Commons Zero 1.0 (Public Domain)
    url: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
  termsOfService: https://www.census.gov/data/developers/about/terms-of-service.html
servers:
- url: https://api.census.gov/data
  description: Census Data API production base
security:
- ApiKeyQuery: []
tags:
- name: Discovery
  description: Dataset discovery via the DCAT-compliant catalog
paths:
  /.json:
    get:
      summary: Get Census Data API Discovery Catalog
      description: 'Returns the DCAT-compliant Census Data API discovery catalog listing

        every available dataset. Each entry includes `c_vintage`, `c_dataset`,

        `c_geographyLink`, `c_variablesLink`, `c_groupsLink`, and a `distribution`

        accessURL pointing to the dataset endpoint.'
      operationId: getDiscoveryCatalog
      tags:
      - Discovery
      security: []
      responses:
        '200':
          description: DCAT catalog of all Census Data API datasets
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/DiscoveryCatalog'
components:
  schemas:
    DiscoveryDataset:
      type: object
      properties:
        '@type':
          type: string
        title:
          type: string
        description:
          type: string
        identifier:
          type: string
        c_vintage:
          type: integer
        c_dataset:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        c_geographyLink:
          type: string
        c_variablesLink:
          type: string
        c_groupsLink:
          type: string
        c_examplesLink:
          type: string
        c_isAvailable:
          type: boolean
        distribution:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              '@type':
                type: string
              accessURL:
                type: string
              format:
                type: string
              mediaType:
                type: string
        publisher:
          type: object
        contactPoint:
          type: object
        license:
          type: string
    DiscoveryCatalog:
      type: object
      properties:
        '@context':
          type: string
        '@type':
          type: string
        conformsTo:
          type: string
        describedBy:
          type: string
        dataset:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/DiscoveryDataset'
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyQuery:
      type: apiKey
      in: query
      name: key
      description: Free API key obtained at https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html

US Census Bureau Discovery API

Operations 1

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