`pumas(cb = FALSE, year = 2024)` uses wrong TIGER directory (`/PUMA/` vs `/PUMA20/`) → download fails

[ashleyasmus]

Description

When requesting 2024 PUMA geometries with cb = FALSE, tigris::pumas() constructs a TIGER URL using the directory TIGER2024/PUMA/, but the actual 2024 PUMA 2020-definition zips appear to be hosted under TIGER2024/PUMA20/. As a result, downloads fail with both HTTP and FTP fallback.

Reprex

library(tigris)

tigris::pumas(state = "Indiana", cb = FALSE, year = 2024)

Output:

• Using FIPS code 18 for Indiana
Downloading: 5.3 kB     HTTP download failed, trying FTP as fallback...
trying URL 'ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2024/PUMA/tl_2024_18_puma20.zip'
Warning message:
In download.file(ftp_url, destfile = file_loc, quiet = !progress_bar,  :
  cannot open URL 'ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2024/PUMA/tl_2024_18_puma20.zip': FTP status was '550 Requested action not taken; file unavailable'
Error:
! Download failed with both HTTP and FTP; check your internet connection or the status of the Census Bureau website
                 at https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/ or ftp://ftp2.census.gov/geo/tiger/.

And for completeness, cb = TRUE behaves as documented:

tigris::pumas(state = "Indiana", cb = TRUE, year = 2024)

Errors with:

Cartographic boundary PUMAs are not yet available for years after 2020… (expected)

Expected behavior

For year = 2024 and cb = FALSE, pumas() should download tl_2024_18_puma20.zip and return the PUMA geometry for Indiana.

Evidence

The Census directory TIGER2024/PUMA20/ exists and contains tl_2024_18_puma20.zip (Indiana). Census

However, the current URL template for cb = FALSE uses .../TIGER%s/PUMA/tl_%s_%s_puma%s.zip:

tigris/R/pumas.R

Line 114 in 07e457d

"https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER%s/PUMA/tl_%s_%s_puma%s.zip",

Proposed fix

Change URL construction for cb = FALSE to use PUMA20 when requesting puma20 files (i.e., year > 2021 / suf == "20"), e.g.:

- url <- sprintf("https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER%s/PUMA/tl_%s_%s_puma%s.zip",
-                cyear, cyear, state, suf)
+ puma_dir <- if (year > 2021) "PUMA20" else "PUMA"
+ url <- sprintf("https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER%s/%s/tl_%s_%s_puma%s.zip",
+                cyear, puma_dir, cyear, state, suf)

Session info

R version 4.4.3 (2025-02-28 ucrt)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64
Running under: Windows 11 x64 (build 26200)

Matrix products: default


locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.utf8  LC_CTYPE=English_United States.utf8    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.utf8 LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United States.utf8    

time zone: America/Chicago
tzcode source: internal

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] vctrs_0.7.1        httr_1.4.7         cli_3.6.5          rlang_1.1.7        stringi_1.8.7      DBI_1.2.3          KernSmooth_2.23-26 generics_0.1.4     sf_1.0-24          tigris_2.2.1.9000  glue_1.8.0         e1071_1.7-17      
[13] rappdirs_0.3.4     grid_4.4.3         classInt_0.4-11    tibble_3.3.1       lifecycle_1.0.5    stringr_1.6.0      compiler_4.4.3     dplyr_1.2.0        Rcpp_1.1.1         pkgconfig_2.0.3    R6_2.6.1           class_7.3-23      
[25] tidyselect_1.2.1   curl_7.0.0         pillar_1.11.1      magrittr_2.0.4     uuid_1.2-2         tools_4.4.3        proxy_0.4-29       units_1.0-0