Using tinytiger

tinytiger is designed to be low dependency to allow packages and newer R users to use TIGER lines and shapefiles without accruing non-standard dependencies. It has four dependencies: - sf, needed to work with shapefiles - curl, needed for downloading the files from the Census Bureau - cli, used to create clear errors, warnings, and messages. - glue, used for constructing complex URLs and already a dependency of cli

While cli is not necessary, it fits within our goals that tinytiger to be friendly for package development and new users, as cli is one of the most-widely downloaded R packages and comes with but one dependency itself.

Using tinytiger

library(tinytiger)

tinytiger has methods to download TIGER shapes for most Census geographies. A full list are available on the tinytiger website.

To download any shapes, we can use the corresponding function for the geography. All functions are prefixed with tt_.

For counties, for example, we can run:

counties <- tt_counties()
#> Error in curl::curl_download(url, path, quiet = quiet) : 
#>   HTTP response code said error [www2.census.gov]: The requested URL returned error: 503
head(counties)

Other options for downloads are:

  • tt_address_ranges()
  • tt_ai_an_nh_areas()
  • tt_anrc()
  • tt_area_landmarks()
  • tt_area_water()
  • tt_block_groups()
  • tt_blocks()
  • tt_cbsa()
  • tt_coastline()
  • tt_congressional_districts()
  • tt_consolidated_cities()
  • tt_counties()
  • tt_county_subdivisions()
  • tt_csa()
  • tt_elementary_school_districts()
  • tt_estates()
  • tt_linear_water()
  • tt_metropolitan_divisions()
  • tt_military()
  • tt_new_england_cities()
  • tt_new_england_city_divisions()
  • tt_new_england_combined_areas()
  • tt_places()
  • tt_point_landmarks()
  • tt_polygon_edges()
  • tt_polygon_faces()
  • tt_primary_roads()
  • tt_primary_secondary_roads()
  • tt_puma()
  • tt_rails()
  • tt_roads()
  • tt_secondary_school_districts()
  • tt_state_leg_lower()
  • tt_state_leg_upper()
  • tt_states()
  • tt_subbarrios()
  • tt_tracts()
  • tt_tribal_block_groups()
  • tt_tribal_subdivisions()
  • tt_tribal_tracts()
  • tt_uac()
  • tt_unified_school_districts()
  • tt_voting_districts()
  • tt_zcta()