NEWS

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usmapdata 0.4.0 (2025-03-06)

Released Thursday, March 6, 2025.

New Features

• Add data_year parameter to us_map(), see Issue #34.
  • Allows user to select the year for which to plot US map.
  • This will allow the user to match the map that is provided to the data they are using.
  • To start with, 2021, 2022, and 2023 maps are included.
  • Going forward, each year will be added to the package and previous years can be accessed with this parameter.
  • If the value provided via data_year is not available, the package will select the next year for which data exists.
    • For example, if data sets 2022 and 2023 are available and the user calls us_map(data_year = 2019), 2022 will be used.
    • A warning is presented when this occurs to alert the user.
  • Further reading on the impetus for this change: major changes made to Connecticut counties in 2023.
  • The old Connecticut counties are available in the 2021 data, 2022 and forward use the new planning regions.

Improvements

• Improve python script and GitHub Actions workflow that download and process map shapefiles to be more flexible and support new data_year feature listed above.
• centroid_labels() now accepts "state" and "county" as inputs for the regions parameter like us_map() and fips_data().
• Update package author email.

usmapdata 0.3.0 (2024-05-17)

Released Friday, May 15, 2024.

• Update map data to use 2023 shape files.

usmapdata 0.2.2 (2024-03-08)

Released Friday, March 8, 2024.

Improvements

• Improve language in DESCRIPTION and minor documentation, see Issue #19.

Bug Fixes

• alaska_bbox() and hawaii_bbox() now output correct sf type (sfc_POLYGON).

usmapdata 0.2.1 (2024-02-04)

Released Sunday, February 4, 2024.

This update continues the sf migration by setting the as_sf parameter to default to the behavior of TRUE. This parameter no longer has any effect, as explained below. The next phase will involve updating usmap to no longer make use of this parameter, in which case it can be completely removed.

Removed

• The as_sf parameter is now deprecated and no longer has any effect.
  • As part of this removal, the default behavior for us_map(), centroid_labels(), and fips_data() is equivalent to as_sf = TRUE which is to return their data as an sf object (see 0.2.0 release notes for more details).
  • This parameter will be completely removed in a future version but continues to exist for compatibility reasons.
• Legacy .csv files containing mapping and FIPS data have been removed, greatly reducing package size.

usmapdata 0.2.0 (2024-01-12)

Released Friday, January 12, 2024.

Improvements

• Update map data to use 2022 shape files.
• Begin process of upgrading map data to use GeoPackage files instead of csv.
  • Previously the files were created using now-retired packages rgdal, rgeos, and maptools.
  • The new files can be accessed by passing as_sf = TRUE to the us_map() and fips_data() functions.
  • Once the upgrade is complete, this parameter will be removed and the new functionality will be the default.
  • The new map files are smaller in size while maintaining the same resolution.
  • The format of the data also allows for easier manipulation in the future using the sf package.
• Add scripts to perform automated map data updates, see Issue #5.
  • The scripts will check for new shapefiles from the US Census Bureau twice a year and automatically update the data.
  • The scripts can also be run manually as needed.
  • Once data is updated a new usmapdata release will be created.

usmapdata 0.1.2 (2023-12-11)

Released Monday, December 11, 2023.

• Add fips_data function to load raw FIPS data from included csv files.
  • fips_data(), fips_data("state"), or fips_data("states") load state FIPS codes
  • fips_data("county") or fips_data("counties") load county FIPS codes

usmapdata 0.1.1 (2023-10-20)

Released Saturday, October 21, 2023.

• Update package author email and website.

usmapdata 0.1.0 (2022-02-09)

Released Wednesday, February 2, 2022.

• First release

Main features

• Contains the us_map function and associated data extracted from the usmap package
• Will allow future removal of data from usmap package so file size can be reduced greatly.