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2014 Cartographic Boundary File, 5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area for United States, 1:500,000

Summary

Type of release
ongoing release of a series of related datasets

Data Licence
Not Applicable

Content Licence
Creative Commons CCZero

Verification
automatically awarded

Release Date
22 June 2015
Modified Date
22 June 2015
Update Frequency
notPlanned
Publishers
US Census Bureau, Department of Commerce
Identifier
2014-cartographic-boundary-file-5-digit-zip-code-tabulation-area-for-united-states-1-500000
Landing Page
http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/2014-cartographic-boundary-file-5-digit-zip-code-tabulation-area-for-united-states-1-500000

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Description

The 2014 cartographic boundary shapefiles are simplified representations of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). These boundary files are specifically designed for small-scale thematic mapping. When possible, generalization is performed with the intent to maintain the hierarchical relationships among geographies and to maintain the alignment of geographies within a file set for a given year. Geographic areas may not align with the same areas from another year. Some geographies are available as nation-based files while others are available only as state-based files. 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 for each decennial census. The Census Bureau delineates ZCTA boundaries for the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands once each decade following the decennial 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. The Census Bureau uses tabulation blocks as the basis for defining each ZCTA. Tabulation blocks are assigned to a ZCTA based on the most frequently occurring ZIP Code for the addresses contained within that block. The most frequently occurring ZIP Code also becomes the five-digit numeric code of the ZCTA. These codes may contain leading zeros. Blocks that do not contain addresses but are surrounded by a single ZCTA (enclaves) are assigned to the surrounding ZCTA. Because the Census Bureau only uses the most frequently occurring ZIP Code to assign blocks, 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 where it exists. The generalized ZCTA boundaries in this file are based on those delineated following the 2010 Census.

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/2014-cartographic-boundary-file-5-digit-zip-code-tabulation-area-for-united-states-1-500000 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

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  • 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

  • This data changes

    no 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

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  • Find out how to contact someone about this data at

    http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/2014-cartographic-boundary-file-5-digit-zip-code-tabulation-area-for-united-states-1-500000 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/2014-cartographic-boundary-file-5-digit-zip-code-tabulation-area-for-united-states-1-500000 Do you think this data is incorrect? Let us know

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