The U.S. Census Bureau has released an Application Programming Interface (API) to enable developers to create applications for the web and mobile platforms to enable users to explore census data via customized interfaces. The API enables developers to access the 2010 Census (Summary File 1) and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 5 Year Estimates allowing users to view data on population, age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, households, education, income, employment, commuting, occupations, housing, and more.

The U.S. Census Bureau has developed an “App Gallery” which will feature applications developed using the API. Currently there are two examples in the App Gallery that provide examples of the potential for using the Census API. These applications include:

• Age-Finder – enables users to count population for single years or for a range of customized age ranges. 

• Poverty Map – provides poverty statistics from the American Community Survey for New York state and includes an visualization of margin of error and more.

Want to explore the Census API and develop your own application? Developers can access the Census Bureau API at: http://www.census.gov/developers/.  Have an idea for an application using the API? Share your ideas through the Census Bureau’s Developers Forum.

Try out the Census Bureau API and if you create something be sure to share it with the U.S. Census Bureau. Enjoy!