Bronze level automatically awarded US beta

This data has achieved Bronze level on 22 October 2015 which means this data makes a great start at the basics of publishing open data.

TIGER/Line Shapefile, 2012, Series Information File for the 2010 nation, 2010 Census 5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA5) National


Description

The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are approximate area representations of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) ZIP Code service areas that the Census Bureau creates to present statistical data from Census 2000. The Census Bureau creates ZCTAs for the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands for the 2010 Census. Data users should not use ZCTAs to identify the official USPS ZIP Code for mail delivery. The USPS makes periodic changes to ZIP Codes to support more efficient mail delivery. For the 2010 Census, ZCTAs should more accurately represent the actual ZIP Codes at the time of their delineation than they did for Census 2000. This is because that before the tabulation blocks, which the ZCTAs are built from, were delineated for the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau undertook the process of inserting lines that could be used as 2010 Census tabulation block boundaries, and these lines split polygons where the result would be that a significant number of addresses would occur on either one or both sides of the line associated with a single ZIP Code. Each 2010 Census tabulation block that contains addresses is assigned to a single ZCTA, usually to the ZCTA that reflects the most frequently occurring ZIP Code for the addresses within that tabulation block. As a result, ZIP Codes associated with address ranges found in the Address Ranges relationship file may not always match the ZCTA. Blocks that do not contain addresses but are completely surrounded by a single ZCTA (enclaves) are assigned to the surrounding ZCTA. A ZCTA may not exist for every USPS ZIP Code. Some ZIP Codes may not have a matching ZCTA because too few addresses were associated with the specific ZIP Code or the ZIP Code was not the most frequently occurring ZIP Code within any of the blocks were it exists. The Census Bureau uses the addresses stored within MTDB to delineate ZCTAs, and at the time of the 2010 Census the MTDB primarily included addresses for residential or at least potentially residential structures, so ZCTAs representing only non-residential structures are infrequent. Also, in each tabulation block, if a choice existed between using a potential city-style mail delivery ZIP Code for an address or a post office box ZIP Code, the city-style mail delivery ZIP Code was preferred for the 2010 Census ZCTA delineation. The Census Bureau identifies 5-digit ZCTAs using a five-character numeric code that represents the most frequently occurring USPS ZIP Code within that ZCTA, and this code may contain leading zeros.


General Information


Legal Information

This dataset has been created by US Government which means it is required to be in the public domain. However US copyright law only allows open access by US citizens, we have assumed the data is equivalently licensed as CC0 for the rest of the world as this is in the spirit of the US Government’s Open Data policy.
  • The rights statement is at

    http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/tiger-line-shapefile-2012-series-information-file-for-the-2010-nation-2010-census-5-digit-zip-c Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • Outside the US, this data is available under

    Creative Commons CCZero Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • There are

    yes, and the rights are all held by the same person or organisation Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • The content is available under

    Creative Commons CCZero Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • This data contains

    no data about individuals Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know


Practical Information

  • The data appears in this collection

    http://catalog.data.gov/organization/census-gov Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • The accuracy or relevance of this data will

    go out of date but it is timestamped Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • The data is

    backed up offsite Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know


Social Information

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    a URL to download the dataset Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • Find out how to contact someone about this data at

    http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/tiger-line-shapefile-2012-series-information-file-for-the-2010-nation-2010-census-5-digit-zip-c Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

  • Find out how to suggest improvements to publication at

    http://www.data.gov/issue/?media_url=http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/tiger-line-shapefile-2012-series-information-file-for-the-2010-nation-2010-census-5-digit-zip-c Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know