Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

660 harvests found

Organizations: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

Filter Results

  • 2016_county

    The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and for the unorganized area, census areas. The latter are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau. In four states (Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia), there are one or more incorporated places that are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of their states. These incorporated places are known as independent cities and are treated as equivalent entities for purposes of data presentation. The District of Columbia and Guam have no primary divisions, and each area is considered an equivalent entity for purposes of data presentation. The Census Bureau treats the following entities as equivalents of counties for purposes of data presentation: Municipios in Puerto Rico, Districts and Islands in American Samoa, Municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The entire area of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas is covered by counties or equivalent entities. The boundaries for counties and equivalent entities are as of January 1, 2015, primarily as reported through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2016_facesmil

    The Topological Faces / Military Installation Relationship File (FACESMIL.dbf) contains a record for each face / military installation relationship. Face refers to the areal (polygon) topological primitives that make up MTDB. A face is bounded by one or more edges; its boundary includes only the edges that separate it from other faces, not any interior edges contained within the area of the face. The face to which a record in the Topological Faces / Military Installation Relationship File (FACESMIL.dbf) applies can be determined by linking to the Topological Faces Shapefile (FACES.shp) on the permanent topological face identifier (TFID) attribute. The military installation to which a record in the Topological Faces / Military Installation Relationship File (FACESMIL.dbf) applies can be determined by linking to the Military Installation Shapefile (MIL.shp) on the military installation identifier (AREAID) attribute. A face may be part of multiple military installations. A military installation may consist of multiple faces.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2016_sldu

    State Legislative Districts (SLDs) are the areas from which members are elected to State legislatures. The SLDs embody the upper (senate) and lower (house) chambers of the state legislature. Nebraska has a unicameral legislature and the District of Columbia has a single council, both of which the Census Bureau treats as upper-chamber legislative areas for the purpose of data presentation; there are no data by SLDL for either Nebraska or the District of Columbia. A unique three-character census code, identified by State participants, is assigned to each SLD within a state. In Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Puerto Rico, the Redistricting Data Program (RDP) participant did not define the SLDs to cover all of the state or state equivalent area. In these areas with no SLDs defined, the code "ZZZ" has been assigned, which is treated as a single SLD for purposes of data presentation. The boundaries of the 2014 State legislative districts were provided by state-level participants through the RDP and reflect the districts used to elect members in or prior to the November 2014 election.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2016_aitsn

    American Indian tribal subdivisions are administrative subdivisions of federally recognized American Indian reservations/off-reservation trust lands or Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs). These entities are internal units of self-government and/or administration that serve social, cultural, and/or economic purposes for the American Indian tribe or tribes on the reservations/off-reservation trust lands or OTSAs. The Census Bureau obtains the boundary and attribute information for tribal subdivisions on federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands from federally recognized tribal governments through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS). For the 2010 Census, the boundaries for tribal subdivisions on OTSAs were also obtained from federally recognized tribal governments through the Tribal Statistical Areas Program (TSAP). Note that tribal subdivisions do not exist on all reservations/off-reservation trust lands or OTSAs, rather only where they were submitted to the Census Bureau by the federally recognized tribal government for that area. The boundaries for American Indian tribal subdivisions are as of January 1, 2015, as reported by the federally recognized tribal governments through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS). The boundaries for tribal subdivisions on OTSAs are those reported as of January 1, 2010 through TSAP.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_cbsa_5

    Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas are together termed Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) and are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of the county or counties or equivalent entities associated with at least one urban core (urbanized area or urban cluster) of at least 10,000 population, plus adjacent counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured through commuting ties with the counties containing the core. Categories of CBSAs are: Metropolitan Statistical Areas, based on urbanized areas of 50,000 or more population; and Micropolitan Statistical Areas, based on urban clusters of at least 10,000 population but less than 50,000 population.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_county_20

    The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and for the unorganized area, census areas. The latter are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau.The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and for the unorganized area, census areas. The latter are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_elsd_500

    School Districts are single-purpose administrative units within which local officials provide public educational services for the area's residents. The Census Bureau obtains the boundaries, names, local education agency codes, grade ranges, and school district levels for school districts from state officials for the primary purpose of providing the U.S. Department of Education with estimates of the number of children in poverty within each school district. This information serves as the basis for the Department of Education to determine the annual allocation of Title I funding to states and school districts. The cartographic boundary files include separate files for elementary, secondary and unified school districts. The generalized school district boundaries in this file are based on those in effect for the 2015-2016 school year, i.e., in operation as of January 1, 2016.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_aiannh_500

    The American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian (AIANNH) Areas Shapefile includes the following legal entities: federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land areas, state-recognized American Indian reservations, and Hawaiian home lands (HHLs). The statistical entities included are Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs), and state designated tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs). Joint use areas are also included in this shapefile refer to areas that are administered jointly and/or claimed by two or more American Indian tribes.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_cbsa_500

    Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas are together termed Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) and are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of the county or counties or equivalent entities associated with at least one urban core (urbanized area or urban cluster) of at least 10,000 population, plus adjacent counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured through commuting ties with the counties containing the core.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_csa_20

    Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of two or more adjacent Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) that have significant employment interchanges. The CBSAs that combine to create a CSA retain separate identities within the larger CSA. Because CSAs represent groupings of CBSAs, they should not be ranked or compared with individual CBSAs.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_csa_500kml

    Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of two or more adjacent Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) that have significant employment interchanges. The CBSAs that combine to create a CSA retain separate identities within the larger CSA. Because CSAs represent groupings of CBSAs, they should not be ranked or compared with individual CBSAs. The generalized boundaries in this file are based on those defined by OMB based on the 2010 Census, published in 2013, and updated in 2015.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017Cart_aiannhkml

    The American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian (AIANNH) Areas file includes the following legal entities: federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land areas, state-recognized American Indian reservations, and Hawaiian home lands (HHLs). The statistical entities included are Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs), and state designated tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs). Joint use areas included in this file refer to areas that are administered jointly and/or claimed by two or more American Indian tribes. The Census Bureau designates both legal and statistical joint use areas as unique geographic entities for the purpose of presenting statistical data. Note that tribal subdivisions and Alaska Native Regional Corporations (ANRCs) are additional types of American Indian/Alaska Native areas stored by the Census Bureau, but are displayed in separate files because of how they fall within the Census Bureau's geographic hierarchy. The State of Hawaii's Office of Hawaiian Home Lands provides the legal boundaries for the HHLs.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_place_500kml

    The cartographic boundary files include both incorporated places (legal entities) and census designated places or CDPs (statistical entities). An incorporated place is established to provide governmental functions for a concentration of people as opposed to a minor civil division (MCD), which generally is created to provide services or administer an area without regard, necessarily, to population. Places always nest within a state, but may extend across county and county subdivision boundaries. An incorporated place usually is a city, town, village, or borough, but can have other legal descriptions. CDPs are delineated for the decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places. CDPs are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name, but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they are located. The boundaries for CDPs often are defined in partnership with state, local, and/or tribal officials and usually coincide with visible features or the boundary of an adjacent incorporated place or another legal entity. CDP boundaries often change from one decennial census to the next with changes in the settlement pattern and development; a CDP with the same name as in an earlier census does not necessarily have the same boundary. The only population/housing size requirement for CDPs is that they must contain some housing and population. The boundaries of most incorporated places in this shapefile are as of January 1, 2016, as reported through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS). The boundaries of all CDPs were delineated as part of the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP) for the 2010 Census.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_cnecta

    Combined New England City and Town Areas (CNECTA) are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of two or more adjacent New England City and Town Areas (NECTA) that have significant employment interchanges. The NECTAs that combine to create a CNECTA retain separate identities within the larger combined statistical area. Because CNECTAs represent groupings of NECTAs, they should not be ranked or compared with individual NECTAs. Boundaries are those defined by OMB based on the 2010 Census, published in 2013, and updated in 2015.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2017_puma10

    After each decennial census, the Census Bureau delineates Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) for the tabulation and dissemination of decennial census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data, American Community Survey (ACS) PUMS data, and ACS period estimates. Nesting within states, or equivalent entities, PUMAs cover the entirety of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. PUMA delineations are subject to population, building block geography, geographic nesting, and contiguity criteria. Each PUMA is identified by a 5-character numeric census code that may contain leading zeros and a descriptive name.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2016_place

    The TIGER/Line shapefiles include both incorporated places (legal entities) and census designated places or CDPs (statistical entities). An incorporated place is established to provide governmental functions for a concentration of people as opposed to a minor civil division (MCD), which generally is created to provide services or administer an area without regard, necessarily, to population. Places always nest within a state, but may extend across county and county subdivision boundaries. An incorporated place usually is a city, town, village, or borough, but can have other legal descriptions. CDPs are delineated for the decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places. CDPs are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name, but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they are located. The boundaries for CDPs often are defined in partnership with state, local, and/or tribal officials and usually coincide with visible features or the boundary of an adjacent incorporated place or another legal entity. CDP boundaries often change from one decennial census to the next with changes in the settlement pattern and development; a CDP with the same name as in an earlier census does not necessarily have the same boundary. The only population/housing size requirement for CDPs is that they must contain some housing and population. The boundaries of most incorporated places in this shapefile are as of January 1, 2015, as reported through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS). The boundaries of all CDPs were delineated as part of the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP) for the 2010 Census.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2016_tabblock10

    Census Blocks are statistical areas bounded on all sides by visible features, such as streets, roads, streams, and railroad tracks, and/or by invisible boundaries such as city, town, township, and county limits, and short line-of-sight extensions of streets and roads. Census blocks are relatively small in area; for example, a block in a city bounded by streets. However, census blocks in remote areas are often large and irregular and may even be many square miles in area. A common misunderstanding is that data users think census blocks are used geographically to build all other census geographic areas, rather all other census geographic areas are updated and then used as the primary constraints, along with roads and water features, to delineate the tabulation blocks. As a result, all 2010 Census blocks nest within every other 2010 Census geographic area, so that Census Bureau statistical data can be tabulated at the block level and aggregated up to the appropriate geographic areas. Census blocks cover all territory in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Blocks are the smallest geographic areas for which the Census Bureau publishes data from the decennial census. A block may consist of one or more faces.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2016_tbg

    A tribal block group is a cluster of census tabulation blocks within a single tribal census tract delineated by American Indian tribal participants or the Census Bureau for the purpose of presenting demographic data on their reservation and/or off-reservation trust land. The tribal block groups are defined independently of the standard county-based block group delineation. For federally recognized American Indian Tribes with reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands with a population less than 1,200, a single tribal block group is defined. Qualifying reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands with a population greater than 1,200 could define additional tribal block groups within their area without regard to the standard block group configuration. Tribal block groups do not necessarily contain tabulation blocks always beginning with the same number and could contain seemingly duplicate block numbers. Tabulation block numbers are still assigned by using standard block groups, not the tribal block groups. To better identify tribal block groups, the letter code range A through K (except I, which could be confused with a number 1) is used uniquely within each tribal census tract. The boundaries of tribal block groups and tribal census tracts are those delineated through the Tribal Statistical Areas Program (TSAP) for the 2010 Census.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2019_facesah

    The Topological Faces / Area Hydrography Relationship File (FACESAH.dbf) contains a record for each face / area hydrography feature relationship. Face refers to the areal (polygon) topological primitives that make up MTDB. A face is bounded by one or more edges; its boundary includes only the edges that separate it from other faces, not any interior edges contained within the area of the face. The face to which a record in the Topological Faces / Area Hydrography Relationship File (FACESAH.dbf) applies can be determined by linking to the Topological Faces Shapefile (FACES.shp) using the permanent topological face identifier (TFID) attribute. The area hydrography feature to which a record in the Topological Faces / Area Hydrography Relationship File (FACESAH.dbf) applies can be determined by linking to the Area Hydrography Shapefile (AREAWATER.shp) using the area hydrography identifier (HYDROID) attribute. A face may be part of multiple area water features. An area water feature may consist of multiple faces.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce

  • 2019_facesmil

    The Topological Faces / Military Installation Relationship File (FACESMIL.dbf) contains a record for each face / military installation relationship.

    — Organization: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce