Getting Started with Census Studio

What Census Studio Supports

Census Studio connects ArcGIS Pro to multiple U.S. Census Bureau data programs through R, giving you access to a wide range of demographic, economic, and workforce data:

ACS — American Community Survey (1-Year & 5-Year)
Decennial — 2000, 2010, 2020 Census
PEP — Population Estimates Program
Migration — ACS Migration Flows
LEHD — LODES Workforce Data

System Requirements

ArcGIS Pro

Version 3.0 or later

R Statistical Software

Version 4.0 or later

Census API Key

Free from census.gov

Installation

Step 1: Install R

1 Download R from https://cran.r-project.org

Install to the default location: C:\Program Files\R\R-4.x.x

Step 2: Install Required R Packages

2 Open R or RStudio and run:

install.packages(c("tidycensus", "lehdr", "sf", "dplyr", "spdep", "jsonlite", "openxlsx"))
Package purposes:
  • tidycensus — ACS, Decennial, Population Estimates, and Migration Flows data
  • lehdr — LEHD LODES workforce and commuting data
  • sf — Spatial data handling and geometry
  • spdep — Spatial analysis (hot spot tools)
  • openxlsx — Optional, for Excel report output

Step 3: Get a Census API Key

3 Request a free API key at https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html

The key will be emailed to you within minutes.

Note: The Census API key is required for ACS, Decennial, Population Estimates, and Migration Flows tools. The LEHD tools download data directly and do not require an API key.

Step 4: Add the Toolbox to ArcGIS Pro

4 In ArcGIS Pro:

  1. Open the Catalog pane
  2. Right-click Toolboxes → Add Toolbox
  3. Browse to Census_Studio.pyt

Step 5: Configure Your API Key

5 Run the Set Census API Key tool:

  1. Expand Census Studio → Configuration
  2. Double-click Set Census API Key
  3. Paste your API key and click Run

This stores the key permanently—you only need to do this once.

Your First Download

Let's download median household income by Census tract for a county:

1 Run Download ACS Census Data

2 Set the parameters:

  • Year: 2024
  • Survey: acs5
  • Variables (manual entry): B19013_001
  • Geography Level: tract
  • State: Your state (e.g., TX)
  • County: Your county (e.g., Travis)
  • Output: Choose a geodatabase location

3 Click Run

The tool will download tract boundaries and median household income data, creating a new feature class with the estimate and margin of error fields.

What you get:
  • Median_HH_Income — The income estimate
  • Median_HH_Income_MOE — The margin of error (90% confidence)

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

R is not found

Census Studio looks for R in C:\Program Files\R. If you installed R elsewhere, the tools may not find it. Reinstall R to the default location.

Package not found errors

If you see errors about missing R packages, open R and run:

install.packages("package_name")

The two most important packages are tidycensus (for ACS, Decennial, PEP, and Migration tools) and lehdr (for LEHD tools). Make sure both are installed.

API key errors

Run the Set Census API Key tool again to ensure your key is stored correctly. Note that LEHD tools do not require an API key.

Note: Some tools may take a minute or more to run, especially when downloading data for large areas or many variables. The progress bar in ArcGIS Pro will show activity.