bfs_get_data: Get a BFS dataset

In BFS: Get Data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office

Get a BFS dataset

Description

Download a dataset from the PXWeb API of the BFS with its BFS number. Find the BFS number with bfs_get_catalog_data() or on the BFS website.

Usage

bfs_get_data(
  number_bfs,
  language = "de",
  query = NULL,
  column_name_type = "text",
  variable_value_type = "text",
  clean_names = FALSE,
  delay = NULL
)

Arguments

number_bfs	The BFS number of a dataset, e.g. "px-x-1502040100_131".
language	Language of the dataset: "de" (default), "fr", "it" or "en".
query	Optional selection of the data: a named list with the variable codes as names and the value codes as values (columns code and values of bfs_get_metadata()), e.g. list(Jahr = c("40", "41"), Geschlecht = "*"). "*" selects all values. A variable not in query is left out of the result (totals over it), if the dataset allows it. If NULL (default), the whole dataset is downloaded.
column_name_type	Column names as "text" (label, default) or "code".
variable_value_type	Values as "text" (label, default) or "code".
clean_names	If TRUE, clean the column names with janitor::clean_names().
delay	Optional number of seconds to wait before downloading the data, to avoid "Too Many Requests" errors when calling the API in a loop.

Details

Large datasets can exceed the limits of the API: select only the data you need with query, or download the whole file with bfs_download_asset().

The PXWeb API is the API of STAT-TAB, which the BFS is replacing with the Swiss Stats Explorer: check first if the statistic is on https://stats.swiss/ and use bfs_sse_data().

Value

A tibble. Returns NULL if there is no internet connection.

See Also

bfs_get_catalog_data(), bfs_get_metadata(), bfs_get_data_comments()

Examples

# whole dataset
bfs_get_data(number_bfs = "px-x-1502040100_131", language = "en")

# only some years and levels of study
bfs_get_data(
  number_bfs = "px-x-1502040100_131",
  language = "en",
  query = list(Jahr = c("40", "41"), Studienstufe = c("2", "3"))
)

BFS documentation built on Oct. 21, 2026, 1:07 a.m.