import pandas as pd d = {'HOME ID': [10460, 10787, 11055, 14870, 12200, 12228, 10934, 10731, 13623, 12524], 'DIVISION': pd.Series(['Pacific', 'East North Central', 'Mountain North', 'Pacific', 'Mountain South', 'South Atlantic', 'East South Central', 'Middle Atlantic', 'East North Central', 'Pacific']), 'KWH': pd.Series([3491.9, 6195.942, 6976.0, 10979.658, 19472.628, 23645.16, 19123.754, 3982.231, 9457.71, 15199.859])} df = pd.DataFrame(data=d) df['DIVISION'] = df['DIVISION'].astype("category") df.dtypes