automatically find year of most recent acs data available via api and use as input parameter to get_acs()

census-api-discovery.R

library(tidyverse)
library(tidycensus)
library(jsonlite)

# get all available census api endpoints
census_api_discovery <- fromJSON("https://api.census.gov/data.json")

# parse responses into df with vintage and dataset name
api_name_vintage <- tibble(
  vintage = census_api_discovery$dataset$c_vintage,
  dataset = map_chr(census_api_discovery$dataset$c_dataset, paste, collapse = "-")
  )

# find max year of acs 1
max_year_acs_1 <- api_name_vintage|> 
  filter(dataset == "acs-acs1-subject") |> 
  pull(vintage) |> 
  max()

# find max year of acs 5
max_year_acs_5 <- api_name_vintage|> 
  filter(dataset == "acs-acs5-subject") |> 
  pull(vintage) |> 
  max()

# pull most recent acs 1 data
get_acs(
  geography = "state",
  variables = "B01003_001",
  year = max_year_acs_1,
  survey = "acs1"
)

# pull most recent acs 5 data
get_acs(
  geography = "state",
  variables = "B01003_001",
  year = max_year_acs_5,
  survey = "acs5"
)