U.S. City and County Web Data API

Table of contents:

Summary
Request Methods
Response Format
1. XML format
2. JSON format

1. Summary

This geographic names data set provides a “mashup” of URLs for
official city and county government web sites and city and county location
data from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
GNIS data includes incorporated places, census designated areas, unincorporated places,
counties, and populated places.

The API is RESTful and output formats are available in XML and JSON.
There is a DTD for the XML output available.

2. Request Methods

City and County data by state

URL templates:

For all URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/city_county_links_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For primary URLs only: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/primary_city_county_links_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For all data with or without URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/city_county_data_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

Example URL:

http://api.sba.gov/geodata/city_county_links_for_state_of/tx.xml

Parameters:

STATE_ABBREVIATION: The two-letter postal code for the state. This is case insensitive.
FORMAT: Either xml or json, case sensitive.

All City data by state

URL templates:

For all URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/city_links_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For primary URLs only: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/primary_city_links_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For all data with or without URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/city_data_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

Example URL:

http://api.sba.gov/geodata/city_links_for_state_of/tx.xml

Parameters:

STATE_ABBREVIATION: The two-letter postal code for the state. This is case insensitive.
FORMAT: Either xml or json, case sensitive.

All County URLs in a state

URL templates:

For all URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/county_links_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For primary URLs only: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/primary_county_links_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For all data with or without URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/county_data_for_state_of/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

Example URL:

http://api.sba.gov/geodata/county_links_for_state_of/tx.xml

Parameters:

STATE_ABBREVIATION: The two-letter postal code for the state. This is case insensitive.
FORMAT: Either xml or json, case sensitive.

All data for a specific City

URL templates:

For all URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/all_links_for_city_of/CITY_NAME/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For primary URLs only: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/primary_links_for_city_of/CITY_NAME/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For all data with or without URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/all_data_for_city_of/CITY_NAME/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

Example URL:

http://api.sba.gov/geodata/all_links_for_city_of/new%20orleans/la.xml

Parameters:

CITY_NAME: The name of the city, URL-encoded, case insensitive..
STATE_ABBREVIATION: The two-letter postal code for the state. This is case insensitive.
FORMAT: Either xml or json, case sensitive.

All data for a specific County

URL templates:

For all URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/all_links_for_county_of/COUNTY_NAME/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For primary URLs only: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/primary_links_for_county_of/COUNTY_NAME/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

For all data with or without URLs: http://api.sba.gov/geodata/all_data_for_city_of/CITY_NAME/STATE_ABBREVIATION.FORMAT

Example URL:

http://api.sba.gov/geodata/all_links_for_county_of/orange%20county/ca.xml

Parameters:

COUNTY_NAME: The full name of the county, URL-encoded, including the words “County”, “Parish”, etc., case insensitive.
STATE_ABBREVIATION: The two-letter postal code for the state. This is case insensitive.
FORMAT: Either xml or json, case sensitive.

3. Response Formats

XML Format

The XML response is well-documented in the XML DTD for this document type.
The document root element's tag-name is <sites>. Each record within the document is contained within
a <site> element, containing sub-elements as detailed in the JSON Format documentation below. Each of
these sub-elements contains its relevant data as Parsed Character Data.

JSON Format

The JSON response consists of an array of anonymous objects, each of which represent a site.
Each of these objects has the following properties:

Field Name	Description	Type	Max. Length	Possible Values
`county_name`	County or county equivalent containing the geographic feature (e.g. city, town, etc.). This value is empty when the geographic feature is a county.	String	255
`description`	Contains a brief description of the website for the geographic feature, when available.	String	250
`feat_class`	The feature class as provided by the GNIS database. URLs are only associated with geographic features with `feat_class` equal to Civil or Populated Place. For further details, see the GNIS documentation.	String	255	`Populated Place Post Office Civil Locale`
`feature_id`	Feature ID from the GNIS database.	Integer	11
`fips_class`	Class code from the GNIS database. For further details, see the GNIS documentation.	String	2	`C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 H1 H4 H5 H6`
`fips_county_cd`	INCITS 31:200x, (Formerly FIPS 6-4) Codes for the Identification of Counties and Equivalent Entities of the United States, its Possessions, and Insular Areas.	String	255
`full_county_name`	The full name of the county containing a geographic feature is located (e.g., Montgomery County).	String	255
`link_title`	Title of the hyperlink for a URL associated with the geographic feature.	String	255
`name`	The name of the geographic feature.	String	255
`primary_latitude`	The primary latitude for the geographic feature.	Float
`primary_longitude`	The primary longitude for the geographic feature.	Float
`state_abbreviation`	The standard two-letter state or territory postal abbreviation containing the geographic feature.	String	2
`state_name`	The full state or territory name (e.g. New Hampshire) containing the geographic feature.	String	25
`url`	The URL for the geographic feature.	String	255

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