Using ArcGIS® API for Python with U.S. Census Data

Esri recently updated its U.S. Census data. The Argis Solutions technical team is sharing one way to customize ArcGIS® Pro tools with ArcPy™. 

A recent consulting project had us diving into U.S. Census data. Certain statistics based on census tracts were significant to the project, but the data wasn’t going to be easy to use with existing ArcGIS Pro tools. A set number of points needed to be given to each census tract that had a specific characteristic if all its surrounding tracts met a given criteria. 

We knew our best option would be to use the Python API to adjust the tools and put them into ArcGIS Pro. 

• First, we looked through the ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing tool reference to see which tools were the closest to what we needed.  

• The Select By Attributes tool helped us find each tract that had the desired characteristic, and the Select By Location tool found the intersecting features for each of those tracts to find the tracts surrounding it.  

• We combined those two tools in a loop using ArcPy so we could check the criteria for the surrounding tracts. 

These steps gave us the data analysis required to check the criteria and achieve project success. ArcGIS API for Python is a great option for creating ArcPy toolboxes easily, and only minimal knowledge of Python is needed. Esri’s ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing tool reference is an excellent guide. It offers example code for how to use each of their tools so you can start customizing right away!