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Retrieve Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data

Source: R/get_census_data.R
get_census_data.Rd

Downloads and processes ABS Census DataPack files for a specified Census year and table number. Census DataPacks contain comprehensive demographic, social, and economic data at SA1 geographic level for all of Australia.

Usage

get_census_data(census_year, table, cache = TRUE)

Arguments

census_year

Numeric. The Census year. Must be one of 2011, 2016, or 2021.

table

Character. The table number to retrieve (e.g., "G01", "G02"). See abs_census_table for a list of available tables and their descriptions.

cache

Logical. If TRUE (default), caches the downloaded DataPack ZIP file for the session, making subsequent requests for other tables from the same Census year much faster. Set to FALSE to always download fresh.

Value

A data frame containing the Census data for the specified table at SA1 level.

Details

This function retrieves Census data from ABS DataPacks, which are ZIP archives containing CSV files with Census data at SA1 geographic level. The function:

  1. Validates input parameters

  2. Downloads the DataPack ZIP (or uses cached version if available)

  3. Extracts the specified table from the ZIP archive

Note that:

  • 2021 and 2016 Census use General Community Profile (GCP) tables (G01, G02, etc.)

  • 2011 Census uses Basic Community Profile (BCP) tables (B01, B02, etc.)

  • DataPacks are large (100-400MB), so the first download takes time

  • With cache = TRUE, subsequent table requests are fast

  • Use clear_cache to remove cached files if needed

See also

abs_census_tables for table descriptions, clear_cache to remove cached files, get_boundary_data for boundary correspondence files

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Retrieve table G01 (Selected Person Characteristics) for 2021
# First call downloads the DataPack (~380MB)
g01 <- get_census_data(census_year = 2021, table = "G01")

# Second call uses cached ZIP - much faster!
g02 <- get_census_data(census_year = 2021, table = "G02")

# Retrieve 2016 Census data
g01_2016 <- get_census_data(census_year = 2016, table = "G01")

# Retrieve 2011 Census data (uses B prefix)
b01_2011 <- get_census_data(census_year = 2011, table = "B01")

# Clear cached files when done (optional - clears automatically when session ends)
clear_cache()
} # }