I've been given the job of extracting some data from the United States 2000 census (files at http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/Summary_File_2/Maryland/all_ Maryland.zip 52M). I'm only interested in Census Block Groups (CBGs) located within Baltimore City, Maryland. Additionally, I just have to extract certain data fields. I think I'll be using Summary File 2. This is my first experience working with US census data. I wasn't successful finding anything using RSiteSearch, although there were some packages with data extracted from the US 2000 census. Are there any pre-constructed tools in R for working with this data? Does the US 2000 census data itself come packaged in R? If there are no R tools, I'd welcome any suggestions on working with this data from anyone experienced with it. Thanks for your advice and suggestions for me. -Kevin Kevin Zembower Internet Services Group manager Center for Communication Programs Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University 111 Market Place, Suite 310 Baltimore, Maryland 21202 410-659-6139
On Thursday 17 January 2008 10:55:03 am Zembower, Kevin wrote:> I've been given the job of extracting some data from the United States > 2000 census (files at > http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/Summary_File_2/Maryland/all_ > Maryland.zip 52M). I'm only interested in Census Block Groups (CBGs) > located within Baltimore City, Maryland. Additionally, I just have to > extract certain data fields. I think I'll be using Summary File 2. This > is my first experience working with US census data. > > I wasn't successful finding anything using RSiteSearch, although there > were some packages with data extracted from the US 2000 census. > > Are there any pre-constructed tools in R for working with this data? > Does the US 2000 census data itself come packaged in R? If there are no > R tools, I'd welcome any suggestions on working with this data from > anyone experienced with it. > > Thanks for your advice and suggestions for me. > > -Kevin >Have a look at the PostGIS and GeoServer projects. I recall that there is an excellent tutorial on making sense of the TIGER data with PostGIS. Cheers, -- Dylan Beaudette Soil Resource Laboratory http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/ University of California at Davis 530.754.7341