Microproduct Data GuideBeginner

Census PEP County Population Totals

Vintage 2025 county population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau for comparing county sizes and applying population-based eligibility thresholds.

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At a Glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · 0.001–0.01 GB
Formats
CSV
Access
Download
API Key
Not Required
Provider
U.S. Census Bureau
Updates
Annual
Last Verified
Sep 28, 2026
Source Type
Government Source
Data Terms
U.S. government published statistics; cite the Census Bureau and retain vintage.
  • Python Syntax Checked
  • Runnable Notebook

From Source to Product Signal

Test a Product Idea in Four Steps

The Census Population Estimates Program publishes a versioned county CSV. Start with five rows from the Vintage 2025 all-data file and retain the year and county FIPS components. Estimates can be revised in later vintages and do not measure the population of a neighborhood or tract.

1

Check the Setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • An internet connection
  • The requests Python package
2

Access the Data

  1. 1.Read the official Vintage 2025 county data page and citation guidance.
  2. 2.Download the county totals CSV and inspect its FIPS and population columns.
  3. 3.Keep the vintage fixed when comparing or ranking counties.
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3

Run the Python Example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install requests

import csv
import io
import itertools
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/"
    "2020-2025/counties/totals/co-est2025-alldata.csv", timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
rows = csv.DictReader(io.StringIO(response.text))
for row in itertools.islice((row for row in rows if row["COUNTY"] != "000"), 5):
    print(row["STATE"], row["COUNTY"], row["CTYNAME"], row["POPESTIMATE2025"])
4

Test a Useful Signal

Inspect Five County Estimates

Test a fixed-vintage population floor for a county comparison tool.

  1. 01Join state and county FIPS components without dropping leading zeroes.
  2. 02Count which sampled counties exceed a chosen population threshold.
  3. 03Explain why later estimates may differ from this pinned vintage.

Related Datasets

Dataset Details

U.S. Census Bureau is a government source. Last verified 2026-09-28. Temporal coverage: 2020-2025 annual estimates, vintage 2025.

Formats

CSV

Provider

U.S. Census Bureau

Data Terms

U.S. government published statistics; cite the Census Bureau and retain vintage.

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