*USE geoid TO JOIN DATA DOWNLOADED FROM DATA.CENSUS.GOV*

The TIGER/Line Shapefiles are extracts of selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census Bureau's Master Address File (MAF)/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) System (MTS).

The TIGER/Line Shapefiles contain a standard geographic identifier (GEOID) for each entity that links to the GEOID in the data from censuses and surveys. The TIGER/Line Shapefiles do not include demographic data from surveys and censuses (e.g., Decennial Census, Economic Census, American Community Survey, and the Population Estimates Program). Other, non-census, data often have this standard geographic identifier as well. Data from many of the Census Bureau’s surveys and censuses, including the geographic codes needed to join to the TIGER/Line Shapefiles, are available at the Census Bureau’s public data dissemination website (https://data.census.gov/).

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are approximate area representations of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) five-digit Zonal Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code service routes that the Census Bureau creates using whole blocks to present statistical data from censuses and surveys. The Census Bureau defines ZCTAs by allocating each block that contains addresses to a single ZCTA, usually to the ZCTA that reflects the most frequently occurring ZIP Code for the addresses within that tabulation block. Blocks that do not contain addresses, but are surrounded by a single ZCTA (enclaves) are assigned to the surrounding ZCTA; those surrounded by multiple ZCTAs are added to a single ZCTA based on limited buffering performed between multiple ZCTAs. The Census Bureau identifies five-digit ZCTAs using a five-character numeric code that represents the most frequently occurring USPS ZIP Code within that ZCTA, and this code has a fixed length of five digits and may contain leading zeros. Not all ZIP Codes in use by the USPS may have a ZCTA delineated to represent them, The USPS makes periodic changes to ZIP Codes to support more efficient mail delivery. In addition, the ZCTA delineation process primarily uses residential addresses and has a bias towards ZIP Codes used for city-style mail delivery, thus there may be ZIP Codes that are primarily nonresidential or used for PO boxes only that may not have a corresponding ZCTA. ZIP Code is a trademark of the U.S. Postal Service.

Downloaded from https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2022/ZCTA520/ on June 22, 2023