US Census Bureau · JSON Structure

Census Data Row Structure

Documentation of the JSON shape returned by every Census Data API query. The top-level response is a 2-D array where the first inner array is the header row of variable names and each subsequent inner array is one record.

Type: Properties: 0
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Census Data Row Structure is a JSON Structure definition published by US Census Bureau.

Meta-schema:

JSON Structure

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{
  "$id": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/us-census-bureau/main/json-structure/census-data-row-structure.json",
  "specification": "JSON Structure 0.1",
  "title": "CensusDataRow Structure",
  "description": "Documentation of the JSON shape returned by every Census Data API query. The top-level response is a 2-D array where the first inner array is the header row of variable names and each subsequent inner array is one record.",
  "shape": {
    "type": "array",
    "name": "ResultSet",
    "description": "Full Census Data API response.",
    "elements": [
      {
        "name": "Header",
        "type": "array",
        "position": "first",
        "elements": {
          "name": "VariableName",
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Variable identifier from the dataset's variables.json dictionary (for example NAME, B01001_001E, state)."
        }
      },
      {
        "name": "Record",
        "type": "array",
        "position": "subsequent",
        "repeated": true,
        "elements": {
          "name": "Cell",
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Cell value at the column index corresponding to the matching Header element. All values are encoded as strings — even numeric measurements — consumers must coerce using predicateType from variables.json."
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "annotations": {
    "headerRowIndex": 0,
    "valueColumnsStartIndex": 0,
    "geographyColumnConvention": "Geography identifier columns (state, county, tract, etc.) are appended after the variables in the `get` clause; total columns = (variables) + (geo hierarchy depth)."
  },
  "example": [
    ["NAME","B01001_001E","state"],
    ["California","39538223","06"],
    ["Texas","29145505","48"]
  ]
}