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Comparison · Infra & APIs
usmap vs usmapdata
A side-by-side editorial comparison of usmap and usmapdata — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:cartography
usmap vs usmapdata: at a glance
What is usmap?
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
usmap plots US state and county maps in an Alaska- and Hawaii-inset projection and joins user data to them by FIPS code. Over the last two years it has been rebuilt underneath: the map data moved out to a companion usmapdata package, the geometry became sf, and a data_year parameter lets a plot match the vintage of the data being plotted. Version 1.0.0 marks ten years of the project and adds Puerto Rico across every function.
What is usmapdata?
usmapdata ships its 2025 shapefiles on the year-indexed model it adopted in 0.4.0.
usmapdata supplies the boundary data behind usmap's plotting functions. Since 0.4.0 it has been year-indexed: us_map(data_year = ) selects a vintage, and each Census release is added as its own year with older ones still reachable. 1.1.0 adds 2025. 1.0.0 closed the package's longest-standing gap by adding Puerto Rico, retroactively across every vintage.
usmap vs usmapdata: editorial side-by-side
usmap
0.0INFRA · APIS
Ten years in, US mapping splits its data out and finally adds Puerto Rico.
◆ Current state
usmap plots US state and county maps in an Alaska- and Hawaii-inset projection and joins user data to them by FIPS code. Over the last two years it has been rebuilt underneath: the map data moved out to a companion usmapdata package, the geometry became sf, and a data_year parameter lets a plot match the vintage of the data being plotted. Version 1.0.0 marks ten years of the project and adds Puerto Rico across every function.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has separated what it draws from how it draws, and that separation is what makes the recent releases possible: annual map vintages ship in usmapdata without touching usmap, and Puerto Rico could be backfilled into every existing year at once. The remaining work is coverage and defaults rather than architecture, and the Puerto Rico exclusion default is already governed by an environment variable rather than a code change.
◆ Prediction
Expect the annual map vintage to keep arriving through usmapdata, with usmap itself changing only where a new territory or a projection default needs handling.
usmapdata
2.5INFRA · APIS
usmapdata ships its 2025 shapefiles on the year-indexed model it adopted in 0.4.0.
◆ Current state
usmapdata supplies the boundary data behind usmap's plotting functions. Since 0.4.0 it has been year-indexed: us_map(data_year = ) selects a vintage, and each Census release is added as its own year with older ones still reachable. 1.1.0 adds 2025. 1.0.0 closed the package's longest-standing gap by adding Puerto Rico, retroactively across every vintage.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has settled into a predictable rhythm — one shapefile vintage per year, with structural change rare and clustered. The two changes that mattered were data_year in 0.4.0, which turned a single-vintage dataset into a time series, and the tibble-to-data-frame switch in 0.6.0 that reduced what downstream callers have to depend on.
◆ Prediction
The stated policy — each year added going forward, previous years reachable through data_year — points to a 2026 vintage as the next release. Nothing in these notes suggests further change to the data model.
Alternatives to usmap and usmapdata
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either usmap or usmapdata.
ggalign
Composable aligned layouts, rebuilt on S7 while ggplot2 4.0 lands underneath.
prioritizr
Conservation planning absorbs the literature's target-setting rules as code.
jSDM
Joint species distribution models in Gibbs-sampled C++, quiet since 2023.
rsofun
An ecosystem model starts tracking carbon isotopes and land-use change.
trackeR
Fitness-tracking analysis in slow maintenance, still absorbing upstream breakage.
See all usmap alternatives → · See all usmapdata alternatives →
Recent activity from usmap and usmapdata
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 23d agousmapdata2025 Census shapefiles added
- 11mo agousmapPuerto Rico added across every usmap function and map year
- 0y agousmapdataPuerto Rico added across every map vintage
- 1y agousmapdataus_map() returns a data frame instead of a tibble
- 1y agousmapdata_year parameter threaded through the plotting functions
- 1y agousmapdata2024 Census shapefiles added
- 1y agousmapdatadata_year turns the package into a multi-vintage archive ⚡
- 2y agousmapdataMap data moves to 2023 shapefiles
- 2y agousmapPopulation and poverty data refreshed; ggplot2 3.5 legend fix
- 2y agousmapMap data becomes sf; usmap_transform() returns geometry ⚡
- 2y agousmapDocumentation links updated
- 2y agousmapMap data extracted to a companion usmapdata package ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between usmap and usmapdata?
Both compete on the same themes — cartography — within Infra & APIs. usmapdata is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is usmap better than usmapdata?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. usmapdata is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to usmap?
Top usmap alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "usmap alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/usmap for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to usmapdata?
Top usmapdata alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "usmapdata alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/usmapdata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.