Census (ACS By ZIP)
Pull U.S. Census ACS income, demographics, housing, and education stats by ZIP inside Claude Code or Cursor when sizing an audience or local market.
Overview
Census (ACS by ZIP) is an MCP server for the Idea phase that serves U.S. Census ACS income, demographics, housing, and education data by ZIP from a local store inside your agent.
What is this MCP server?
- Queries American Community Survey metrics sliced by ZIP from a local store after one-time bulk load
- Covers income, demographics, housing, and education fields suited to market sizing
- Stdio MCP package on PyPI as mcpwright-census (version 0.1.1)
- Requires a free CENSUS_API_KEY only for the initial ACS dataset download
- Offline-friendly repeat lookups once the local store is populated
- Server version 0.1.1 on PyPI identifier mcpwright-census
- ACS metrics grouped by ZIP: income, demographics, housing, education
- Stdio MCP transport; CENSUS_API_KEY required only for initial bulk download
What problem does it solve?
You need credible neighborhood and audience numbers by ZIP but bouncing between Census tables and your agent breaks flow and invites copy-paste errors.
Who is it for?
Indie builders validating local or ZIP-scoped audiences, pricing tiers, or community features with ACS-backed facts in Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex.
Skip if: Teams that need real-time federal API hits every query, block-level GIS maps, or non-U.S. market statistics.
What do I get? / Deliverables
After you register the server and run the one-time ACS download, your agent can answer ZIP-level demographic and income questions from a local cache during ideation chats.
- Agent-accessible ACS income, demographic, housing, and education answers per ZIP
- Local cached dataset for repeat ZIP lookups without re-downloading each session
- Documented market assumptions you can cite from public Census fields
Recommended MCP Servers
Journey fit
Canonical shelf is Idea because ZIP-level ACS facts answer who lives where and what they earn before you commit to a niche or positioning. Audience subphase fits solo builders mapping ICP geography, affordability, and neighborhood mix without leaving the agent chat.
How it compares
ZIP-level ACS data MCP with a local store—not a SEC filings tool and not a generic web scraper.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is Census (ACS By ZIP) for?
Solo and indie builders who research U.S. markets in-agent and want Census ACS facts by ZIP without manually browsing data.census.gov.
When should I use Census (ACS By ZIP)?
Use it in the Idea phase when you are defining audience, comparing ZIPs, or sanity-checking whether a geography matches your assumed income or housing profile.
How do I add Census (ACS By ZIP) to my agent?
Install the PyPI package mcpwright-census, set CENSUS_API_KEY for the one-time bulk download, add the stdio MCP server entry in Claude Code or Cursor, then query ZIP metrics through MCP tools.