CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Jerry
Jerry

Reputation: 13

The unit of area in R package {UScensus2010}

I am using the {UScensus2010} package in R and trying to get the area for each county. I found the areaPoly() in the package. Does anyone know the unit of the area? Is it square mile?

Thank you.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 68

Answers (1)

Thrillho
Thrillho

Reputation: 142

Assuming you are using US Census data, this is from the explanation of the dataset that UScensus2010 links to:

Land area measurement in square meters. The accuracy of the area measurement is limited by the inaccuracy inherent in the mapping of the various boundary features in the Census Bureau’s geographic database. Land area includes areas classified as intermittent water, swamps, and glaciers, which appear on census maps and in the Census Bureau’s geographic database as hydrographic features. Square miles can be derived by dividing square meters by 2,589,988. See Appendix A, “Geographic Terms and Concepts,” for definition of this field.

http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/sf1.pdf

If you are still unsure, pick your home county and check it against the area that wikipedia or the official county website claims.

Upvotes: 1

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