Add JSON block data to a shapefile with GDAL

add_to_shapefile.py

# pip install gdal
import json
from osgeo import ogr

# depends on your shapefile
target_shapefile = 'tl_2010_sample_shapefile.shp'
fips_id = 'GEOID10'

saveblocks = json.loads(open('savefile.json', 'r').read())

driver = ogr.GetDriverByName('ESRI Shapefile')
dataSource = driver.Open(target_shapefile, 1)
layer = dataSource.GetLayer()

for item in saveblocks.keys():
    fields = saveblocks[item].keys()
    break

# caution: running twice will create COLNAME, COLNAME_1, COLNAME_2
# a long column name may be cut a shorter one
print('creating columns')
for field in fields:
    fldDef = ogr.FieldDefn(field, ogr.OFTInteger)
    layer.CreateField(fldDef)

print('setting columns')
feature = layer.GetNextFeature()
while feature:
    geoid = feature.GetField(fips_id)
    if geoid in saveblocks:
        for field in fields:
            feature.SetField(field, saveblocks[geoid][field])
            layer.SetFeature(feature)
    feature = layer.GetNextFeature()