naco.org APInaco.org ↗
Access U.S. county profiles, FIPS-based lookups, bulk economic indicators, federal funding data, and NACo research resources via a structured API.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/2c2ee68f-df52-4653-98eb-73ab9e98712b/search_counties?limit=5&query=CA' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search for U.S. counties by name, state, or FIPS code. Returns a list of matching counties with their population and NACo membership status.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| limit | integer | Maximum number of results to return. |
| query | string | Search keyword (county name, state abbreviation, or FIPS code). Omitting returns all counties. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"counties": "array of county objects with fips, name, state, population, and is_naco_member",
"total_matches": "integer total number of matching counties"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"counties": [
{
"fips": "01015",
"name": "Calhoun County",
"state": "AL",
"population": 114277,
"is_naco_member": true
}
],
"total_matches": 196
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the naco.org API
The NACo.org API provides 4 endpoints covering U.S. county government data for all ~3,000 counties, including FIPS-coded profiles, bulk economic and federal funding indicators, and searchable NACo research resources. The get_county_profile endpoint returns fields like County_GDP, Governing_Authority, Board_Size, Year_Founded, and historical census population, while get_indicator_data delivers bulk indicator values across every county in a single call.
County Search and Profiles
The search_counties endpoint accepts a query string (county name, state abbreviation, or 5-digit FIPS code) and returns an array of matching county objects — each with fips, name, state, population, and is_naco_member — along with a total_matches count. To pull a full county record, pass the 5-digit FIPS code to get_county_profile. That response includes government structure fields (Governing_Authority, Board_Size), geographic attributes (Land_Area, County_Seat), economic data (County_GDP), a County_Website link, and a pop object mapping census years (from 1920 through 2020) to historical population figures.
Bulk Indicator Data
get_indicator_data is a POST endpoint that returns data for all ~3,000 counties in one call. You supply a dataset_db (confirmed values: Federal_Funding, County_Economy) and an indicators string (confirmed values include FED_PILT_Allocation for the Federal Funding dataset). The response includes a data array of objects keyed by FIPS with indicator values, plus year, count, and dataset fields. Only one indicator per request is reliably supported; invalid dataset/indicator combinations may return a 500 error from the upstream source.
NACo Research Resources
search_resources retrieves NACo publications, toolkits, and policy documents. Results are paginated (0-indexed page parameter) and filterable by query, topic ID (e.g., 37 for Health, 38 for Housing), and resource_type ID (e.g., 19 for Reports & Toolkits, 17 for Policy Document, 21 for Video). Each result object includes id, title, url, and date. The meta field in the response exposes totalResults, totalPages, and facets for further filtering.
- Map federal PILT allocation across all U.S. counties using bulk
FED_PILT_Allocationindicator data - Build a county government directory using
Governing_Authority,Board_Size, andCounty_Websitefromget_county_profile - Identify NACo member counties for partnership targeting via the
is_naco_memberflag insearch_counties - Analyze historical county population trends using the
popobject spanning census years 1920–2020 - Surface county economic output figures with
County_GDPfrom theCounty_Economydataset - Retrieve NACo health or housing policy documents by filtering
search_resourceswith topic IDs like37or38 - Cross-reference county FIPS codes with external datasets using the FIPS lookup in
search_counties
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does NACo offer an official developer API?+
What does `get_county_profile` return beyond basic demographics?+
get_county_profile returns government structure fields (Governing_Authority, Board_Size), geographic attributes (County_Seat, Land_Area, Year_Founded), County_GDP, a County_Website URL, and a pop object with population figures for each decennial census year from 1920 to 2020. The found boolean indicates whether the requested FIPS code resolved to a record.Are there limitations on which indicator and dataset combinations work in `get_indicator_data`?+
dataset_db and indicators pairs are confirmed to work reliably — notably Federal_Funding with FED_PILT_Allocation and County_Economy with economic indicators. Unrecognized combinations may return a 500 error. Only one indicator per request is reliably supported; multi-indicator batching is not guaranteed.Does the API expose county-level contact information such as commissioner names or direct phone numbers?+
get_county_profile endpoint returns a County_Website URL and government structure data, but individual official names, direct phone numbers, and email addresses are not included in the response fields. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint targeting those contact details.Can I filter `search_resources` by both topic and resource type at the same time?+
search_resources accepts topic, resource_type, and query as independent optional parameters, and they can be combined in the same request. Topic IDs include 37 for Health and 38 for Housing; resource type IDs include 19 for Reports & Toolkits, 17 for Policy Document, and 21 for Video.