census_geographies_by_coordinates
Resolve a latitude/longitude point to US Census geographies including state, county, tract, and block. Handles out-of-US coordinates gracefully.
Instructions
Resolve a longitude/latitude point → the Census GEOGRAPHIES at that point, no address parsing (US Census Geocoder, keyless; geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/coordinates). For a caller that already holds coordinates. Input longitude/x (required, -180..180) + latitude/y (required, -90..90) — x=longitude, y=latitude (the Census API's own names; longitude/latitude are the clearer aliases), optional benchmark/vintage. Returns { found, coordinates:{x,y}, geographies:{ state, county, congressionalDistrict, censusTract, censusBlock, place, cbsaOrCsa, stateLegislativeUpper, stateLegislativeLower }, vintageResolved } + honest _meta. HONESTY: a point outside any US Census geography (offshore / out-of-US) ⇒ geographies all null / found:false / complete:true (an honest empty geographies:{}, NOT an error); coordinate finiteness is re-guarded PRE-fetch (a non-finite x/y ⇒ invalid_input, 0 fetch); a historical vintage's >1-layer-per-type is surfaced with alternates[] + a note (same [B1] multi-key handling as the address tool); GEOIDs are STRINGS (leading zeros survive); the resolved benchmark/vintage is echoed + a moving-vintage note; a bad benchmark/vintage ⇒ HTTP 400 THROWS; an outage/5xx ⇒ THROWS. MANDATORY CAVEAT every response: these are a NOMINAL input, NOT an authoritative HUBZone / Opportunity-Zone / set-aside determination.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| x | No | Longitude — the Census API's own name for longitude (alias of `longitude`). | |
| y | No | Latitude — the Census API's own name for latitude (alias of `latitude`). | |
| vintage | No | Geography vintage (default Current_Current — a MOVING vintage; the same address may return a different tract/CD across cycles). The valid vintage set DEPENDS on the benchmark (a matrix — this enum is the UNION across all four benchmarks); an incompatible (benchmark, vintage) pair fails-closed with an HTTP 400 (invalid_input), never a silent mis-resolution. e.g. Census2020_Census2020 (with Public_AR_Census2020), Census2010_Current. | |
| latitude | No | Latitude (y), a finite number in [-90, 90]. Alias of `y`. e.g. 32.377612. | |
| benchmark | No | Address-range benchmark (default Public_AR_Current — a MOVING benchmark). One of Public_AR_Current / Public_AR_ACS2025 / Public_AR_LUCA / Public_AR_Census2020. vintage MUST be compatible with this benchmark (a matrix); an incompatible pair fails-closed with an HTTP 400. | |
| longitude | No | Longitude (x), a finite number in [-180, 180]. Alias of `x`. e.g. -86.301883. |