Is there an API for U.S. Census Bureau Data?

U.S. Census Bureau Data does not offer a public data API for this, but Anakin Wire provides 8 maintained endpoints for data.census. You call Anakin's REST API with an action ID and parameters and get structured JSON back; Anakin handles the browser, proxies, anti-bot, and parsing.

How do I scrape U.S. Census Bureau Data data?

POST to https://api.anakin.io/v1/wire/task with your API key, the action ID, and its parameters, then poll GET /v1/wire/jobs/{id} until the job settles. There is nothing to install and no scraper to maintain — when data.census changes its markup, Anakin updates the action.

Do I need a U.S. Census Bureau Data account?

No. Every U.S. Census Bureau Data action listed here runs anonymously — no account and no credentials required.

What does the U.S. Census Bureau Data API cost?

Usage-based credits, charged per call and refunded automatically when a job fails. New accounts start with 300 free credits and no card. See anakin.io/pricing for the current rates.

Government Legal

U.S. Census Bureau Data API

data.census

U.S. Census Bureau data explorer for browsing datasets by topic, geography, and year, with table listings, values, and metadata.

Actions: 8
Category: Government Legal
Login: Not required
Output: JSON

Get an API key Wire API reference

Call the U.S. Census Bureau Data API

Submit a task, then poll the job until it settles. This example runs act_data_census_featured_results_listing.

curl -X POST https://api.anakin.io/v1/wire/task \
  -H "X-API-Key: $ANAKIN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "action_id": "act_data_census_featured_results_listing",
    "params": {
      "topic": "Housing",
      "year": "2024"
    }
  }'

8 actions on data.census

Read

Featured Results Listing
act_data_census_featured_results_listingread2 credits / call
Returns featured and filtered dataset search results for a topic and year with ids and descriptions.
topic
string
year
string
Geography Entity Profiles
act_data_census_geography_entity_profilesread1 credit / call
Returns geography browse profile cards with titles, hierarchy levels, and facet codes.
Geography Profile Highlights
act_data_census_geography_profile_highlightsread2 credits / call
Returns headline demographic and economic metrics for a geography profile tile.
geography_code
string · required
Geography Profile Metadata
act_data_census_geography_profile_metadataread2 credits / call
Returns geography profile header metadata including name, description, and map configuration.
geography_code
string · required
Table Data Values
act_data_census_table_data_valuesread2 credits / call
Returns full tabular census cell values and row data for a dataset table id.
table_id
string · required
Table Metadata
act_data_census_table_metadataread2 credits / call
Returns table titles, measure definitions, margins of error, notes, and structural metadata.
table_id
string · required
Topic Facets
act_data_census_topic_facetsread1 credit / call
Returns the hierarchical topic taxonomy facet tree with dataset counts for browse filters.
Vintage Facets
act_data_census_vintage_facetsread1 credit / call
Returns available data years and vintages with dataset counts for year-based filtering.

U.S. Census Bureau Data API questions

Is there an API for U.S. Census Bureau Data?: U.S. Census Bureau Data does not offer a public data API for this, but Anakin Wire provides 8 maintained endpoints for data.census. You call Anakin's REST API with an action ID and parameters and get structured JSON back; Anakin handles the browser, proxies, anti-bot, and parsing.
How do I scrape U.S. Census Bureau Data data?: POST to https://api.anakin.io/v1/wire/task with your API key, the action ID, and its parameters, then poll GET /v1/wire/jobs/{id} until the job settles. There is nothing to install and no scraper to maintain — when data.census changes its markup, Anakin updates the action.
Do I need a U.S. Census Bureau Data account?: No. Every U.S. Census Bureau Data action listed here runs anonymously — no account and no credentials required.
What does the U.S. Census Bureau Data API cost?: Usage-based credits, charged per call and refunded automatically when a job fails. New accounts start with 300 free credits and no card. See anakin.io/pricing for the current rates.