Using `tinytiger`

tinytiger is designed to be low dependency to allow packages and newer R users to use TIGER lines and shapefiles without accruing non-standard dependencies. It has four dependencies: - sf, needed to work with shapefiles - curl, needed for downloading the files from the Census Bureau - cli, used to create clear errors, warnings, and messages. - glue, used for constructing complex URLs and already a dependency of cli

While cli is not necessary, it fits within our goals that tinytiger to be friendly for package development and new users, as cli is one of the most-widely downloaded R packages and comes with but one dependency itself.

library(tinytiger)

tinytiger has methods to download TIGER shapes for most Census geographies. A full list are available on the tinytiger website.

To download any shapes, we can use the corresponding function for the geography. All functions are prefixed with tt_.

For counties, for example, we can run:

counties <- tt_counties()

head(counties)
#> Simple feature collection with 6 features and 17 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension:     XY
#> Bounding box:  xmin: -123.7283 ymin: 18.11774 xmax: -65.81565 ymax: 46.38562
#> Geodetic CRS:  NAD83
#>   STATEFP COUNTYFP COUNTYNS GEOID        NAME              NAMELSAD LSAD
#> 1      31      039 00835841 31039      Cuming         Cuming County   06
#> 2      53      069 01513275 53069   Wahkiakum      Wahkiakum County   06
#> 3      35      011 00933054 35011     De Baca        De Baca County   06
#> 4      31      109 00835876 31109   Lancaster      Lancaster County   06
#> 5      31      129 00835886 31129    Nuckolls       Nuckolls County   06
#> 6      72      085 01804523 72085 Las Piedras Las Piedras Municipio   13
#>   CLASSFP MTFCC CSAFP CBSAFP METDIVFP FUNCSTAT      ALAND   AWATER    INTPTLAT
#> 1      H1 G4020  <NA>   <NA>     <NA>        A 1477644346 10691216 +41.9158651
#> 2      H1 G4020  <NA>   <NA>     <NA>        A  680980770 61564427 +46.2946377
#> 3      H1 G4020  <NA>   <NA>     <NA>        A 6016818946 29090018 +34.3592729
#> 4      H1 G4020  <NA>   <NA>     <NA>        A 2169272978 22847034 +40.7835474
#> 5      H1 G4020  <NA>   <NA>     <NA>        A 1489645185  1718484 +40.1764918
#> 6      H1 G4020  <NA>   <NA>     <NA>        A   87748418    32509 +18.1871483
#>       INTPTLON                       geometry
#> 1 -096.7885168 MULTIPOLYGON (((-96.55515 4...
#> 2 -123.4244583 MULTIPOLYGON (((-123.7276 4...
#> 3 -104.3686961 MULTIPOLYGON (((-104.8934 3...
#> 4 -096.6886584 MULTIPOLYGON (((-96.68493 4...
#> 5 -098.0468422 MULTIPOLYGON (((-98.2737 40...
#> 6 -065.8711890 MULTIPOLYGON (((-65.85703 1...

Other options for downloads are:

Using `tinytiger`

Using tinytiger

Using `tinytiger`