groups.json: List variable groups

API: census.gov:census-data-api
Endpoint: /data/{year}/{dataset}/groups.json
Response format: application/json
Auth: unknown
Method: GET
Last Status: 200
Latency: 478ms

Description

Lists variable groups that organize related Census variables into logical categories like 'Age', 'Income', 'Housing', etc. Each group contains multiple variables representing different estimates, margins of error, and annotations. Use this to discover what topics are covered and find the group code needed to access specific variables.

From spec: Returns groups of related variables (tables) available in the dataset, such as demographic or housing tables.

Usage Tips

- Each group has a 'variables' link to get all variables in that group - Group names like 'B01001' represent Census table numbers - 'universe' specifies the population the data applies to - Groups are consistent across years but availability varies by dataset

Parameters (2)

dataset (string, path, required)

Dataset path. Common values: 'acs/acs5' (ACS 5-year), 'acs/acs1' (ACS 1-year), 'dec/sf1' (Decennial Summary File 1), 'cbp' (County Business Patterns)

year (string, path, required)

Vintage (year) of the dataset. Examples: 2022, 2020, 2010

Constraints: {'pattern': '^\\d{4}$'}

Examples (2)

List variable groups for 2022 ACS 5-Year data probe-gate

Demonstrates retrieving all variable groups (data tables) available in the ACS dataset, organized by topic.

curl 'https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5/groups.json'

import requests

resp = requests.get("https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5/groups.json")
data = resp.json()

import zingu_apis

api = zingu_apis.api("census-data")
result = api.fetch("data/{year}/{dataset}/groups.json")

for item in result:
    print(item)

const resp = await fetch("https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5/groups.json");
const data = await resp.json();

Truncate

Auto Table Raw

List variable groups for 2020 Decennial Census probe-gate

Shows available data tables in the 2020 Decennial Census Data Profile, covering population, housing, and demographic characteristics.

curl 'https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dpsx/groups.json'

import requests

resp = requests.get("https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dpsx/groups.json")
data = resp.json()

import zingu_apis

api = zingu_apis.api("census-data")
result = api.fetch("data/{year}/{dataset}/groups.json")

for item in result:
    print(item)

const resp = await fetch("https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dpsx/groups.json");
const data = await resp.json();

Truncate

Auto Table Raw

Probe History

Latency

Status Codes

Time	Status	Latency
2026-04-16 02:27:49.301279	200	478ms
2026-04-16 01:57:48.383782	404	460ms
2026-04-15 01:40:14.619138	200	615ms
2026-04-15 00:33:27.551852	404	603ms
2026-04-14 03:06:58.835904	404	865ms
2026-04-14 02:40:31.135161	200	581ms
2026-04-12 14:51:45.086241	404	461ms
2026-04-12 14:33:31.184019	200	495ms
2026-04-10 02:33:53.651965	404	552ms
2026-04-10 01:19:38.476585	200	430ms