Population Distribution Workflow using Census API in Jupyter Notebook: Dynamic Map of Census Tracts in Boone County, KY, 2000

This archive reproduces a figure titled "Figure 3.2 Boone County population distribution" from Wang and vom Hofe (2007, p.60). The archive provides a Jupyter Notebook that uses Python and can be run in Google Colaboratory. The workflow uses the Census API to retrieve data, reproduce the figure, and ensure reproducibility for anyone accessing this archive.<br><br>The Python code was developed in Google Colaboratory, or Google Colab for short, which is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of JupyterLab and streamlines package installation, code collaboration, and management. The Census API is used to obtain population counts from the 2000 Decennial Census (Summary File 1, 100% data). Shapefiles are downloaded from the TIGER/Line FTP Server. All downloaded data are maintained in the notebook's temporary working directory while in use. The data and shapefiles are stored separately with this archive. The final map is also stored as an HTML file.<br><br>The notebook features extensive explanations, comments, code snippets, and code output. The notebook can be viewed in a PDF format or downloaded and opened in Google Colab. References to external resources are also provided for the various functional components. <br><br>The notebook features code that performs the following functions:<br><br>install/import necessary Python packagesdownload the Census Tract shapefile from the TIGER/Line FTP Serverdownload Census data via CensusAPI manipulate Census tabular data merge Census data with TIGER/Line shapefileapply a coordinate reference systemcalculate land area and population densitymap and export the map to HTMLexport the map to ESRI shapefileexport the table to CSV<br>The notebook can be modified to perform the same operations for any county in the United States by changing the State and County FIPS code parameters for the TIGER/Line shapefile and Census API downloads. The notebook can be adapted for use in other environments (i.e., Jupyter Notebook) as well as reading and writing files to a local or shared drive, or cloud drive (i.e., Google Drive).<br>