R tools to access PX-WEB API - the pxweb R package

The package now supports PXWEB API 2.0

The pxweb R package provides tools to interface with the PX-WEB API for data search, download, manipulation and visualization purposes. This is used by a large number of statistical authorities world-wide. It offers methods to utilize information about the data hierarchy stored behind the PXWEB API.

Many API services are still in their early stages, and data quality is sometimes compromised. Issue reports are welcome.

Installation

The easiest way to use pxweb is to simply install it from CRAN:

install.packages("pxweb")

Alternatively, you can get the latest stable development version:

library(remotes)
remotes::install_github("ropengov/pxweb")

In some cases, the organization requires manual proxy settings. This can be set as follows:

library(remotes)
library(httr)
set_config(
  use_proxy("64.251.21.73", 8080) # Note! This is an example
)
remotes::install_github("ropengov/pxweb")

Using the package

For examples, check the tutorial/vignette.

PXWEB API v2

PXWEB API v2 tables can be queried with the same pxweb_get() and pxweb_get_data() workflow. A v2 data request is sent to the table’s /data endpoint and returns JSON-stat2 by default.

url <- "https://statistikdatabasen.scb.se/api/v2/tables/TAB638/metadata?lang=sv"

query <- list(
  Region = "00",
  Civilstand = "OG",
  Alder = "0",
  Kon = "1",
  ContentsCode = "BE0101N1",
  Tid = "2024"
)

px_data <- pxweb_get(url, query = query)
as.data.frame(px_data, column.name.type = "code", variable.value.type = "code")

px_df <- pxweb_get_data(
  url,
  query = query,
  column.name.type = "code",
  variable.value.type = "code"
)

For v2 tables with value sets or aggregation codelists, use query helpers instead of writing API-specific parameters by hand:

query <- list(
  Region = pxweb_all(),
  Alder = pxweb_aggregation("agg_Ålder5år_1"),
  Kon = c("1", "2"),
  ContentsCode = "BE0101N1",
  Tid = pxweb_latest()
)

px_df <- pxweb_get_data(
  url,
  query = query,
  column.name.type = "code",
  variable.value.type = "code"
)

Available codelist identifiers can be listed from the v2 metadata:

meta <- pxweb_get(url)
pxweb_codelists(meta, variable = "Alder")

pxweb_latest() is resolved against the table metadata before the request is sent. It replaces its placeholder value, "9999" by default, with the last available metadata value for that variable.

For v2 data, the content variable is kept as a dimension, such as ContentsCode, and observations are returned in a generic value column.

Problems?

See TROUBLESHOOTING.md or open an issue.

Contributing

You are welcome to contact us:

• Submit suggestions and bug reports (provide the output of sessionInfo() and packageVersion("pxweb"))
• Send a pull request
• Star us on the Github page
• Join the discussion in Gitter

Acknowledgements

citation("pxweb")
Kindly cite the pxweb R package as follows:

Kindly cite the 'pxweb' R package as follows:

  Magnusson M, Kainu M, Huovari J, Lahti L (2025). _pxweb: R Interface
  to PXWEB APIs_. doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.pxweb
  <https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.pxweb>, R package version
  0.17.1, <https://github.com/rOpenGov/pxweb>.

A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is

  @Manual{R-pxweb,
    title = {{pxweb: R Interface to PXWEB APIs}},
    doi = {10.32614/CRAN.package.pxweb},
    author = {Mans Magnusson and Markus Kainu and Janne Huovari and Leo Lahti},
    year = {2025},
    version = {0.17.1},
    note = {R package version 0.17.1},
    url = {https://github.com/rOpenGov/pxweb},
  }

We are grateful to all contributors! This project is part of rOpenGov.