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5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA5) United States 2010

Identification Information
Citation
Originator
U.S. Census Bureau. Geography Division
Publication Date
2010
Title
5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA5) United States 2010
Edition
2010
Geospatial Data Presentation Form
vector digital data
Online Linkage
https://hgl.harvard.edu/catalog/harvard-tg10uszcta5
Abstract
This polygon data layer represents the 2010 TIGER/Line census 5-Digit ZIP code tabulation areas for the United States. The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that 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 File 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.
Purpose
In order for others to use the information in the Census MAF/TIGER database in a geographic information system (GIS) or for other geographic applications, the Census Bureau releases to the public extracts of the database in the form of TIGER/Line Shapefiles.
Temporal Extent
Currentness Reference
Publication Date
Time Period
Beginning
201001
End
201007
Bounding Box
West
-179.231086
East
179.859681
North
71.441059
South
17.831509
Theme Keyword
Census
Boundaries
Zip codes
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
LCSH
Theme Keyword
boundaries
location
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
ISO 19115 Topic Categories
Theme Keyword
Nation
Polygon
ZIP Code Tabulation Area
ZCTA
Zip Code
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
None
Place Keyword
United States
United States
U.S.
Place Keyword Thesaurus
INCITS.38-200x (R2004),INCITS.31-200x (R2007),INCITS.454-200x,INCITS 455-200x,INCITS 446-2008
Temporal Keyword
Access Restrictions
None
Use Restrictions
The TIGER/Line Shapefile products are not copyrighted however TIGER/Line and Census TIGER are registered trademarks of the U.S. Census Bureau. These products are free to use in a product or publication, however acknowledgement must be given to the U.S. Census Bureau as the source. The boundary information in the TIGER/Line Shapefiles are for statistical data collection and tabulation purposes only; their depiction and designation for statistical purposes does not constitute a determination of jurisdictional authority or rights of ownership or entitlement and they are not legal land descriptions.Coordinates in the TIGER/Line shapefiles have six implied decimal places, but the positional accuracy of these coordinates is not as great as the six decimal places suggest.
Status
Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency
TIGER/Line Shapefiles are extracted from the Census MAF/TIGER database. No changes or updates will be made to this version of the TIGER/Line Shapefiles. Future releases of TIGER/Line Shapefiles will reflect updates made to the Census MAF/TIGER database.
Point of Contact
Contact Organization
U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Geographic Products Branch
Delivery Point
4600 Silver Hill Road, Stop 7400
City
Washington
State
DC
Postal Code
20233-7400
Country
United States
Contact Telephone
301-763-1128
Contact Facsimile Telephone
301-763-4710
Contact Electronic Mail Address
geo.tiger@census.gov
Native Data Set Environment
Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.0.1770
Data Quality Information
Attribute Accuracy Report
Accurate against Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), FIPS Publication 6-4, and FIPS-55 at the 100% level for the codes and base names. The remaining attribute information has been examined but has not been fully tested for accuracy.
Logical Consistency Report
The Census Bureau performed automated tests to ensure logical consistency and limits of shapefiles. Segments making up the outer and inner boundaries of a polygon tie end-to-end to completely enclose the area. All polygons are tested for closure. The Census Bureau uses its internally developed geographic update system to enhance and modify spatial and attribute data in the Census MAF/TIGER database. Standard geographic codes, such as FIPS codes for states, counties, municipalities, county subdivisions, places, American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian areas, and congressional districts are used when encoding spatial entities. The Census Bureau performed spatial data tests for logical consistency of the codes during the compilation of the original Census MAF/TIGER database files. Most of the codes for geographic entities except states, counties, urban areas, Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), American Indian Areas (AIAs), and congressional districts were provided to the Census Bureau by the USGS, the agency responsible for maintaining FIPS 55. Feature attribute information has been examined but has not been fully tested for consistency. For the TIGER/Line Shapefiles, the Point and Vector Object Count for the G-polygon SDTS Point and Vector Object Type reflects the number of records in the shapefile attribute table. For multi-polygon features, only one attribute record exists for each multi-polygon rather than one attribute record per individual G-polygon component of the multi-polygon feature. TIGER/Line Shapefile multi-polygons are an exception to the G-polygon object type classification. Therefore, when multi-polygons exist in a shapefile, the object count will be less than the actual number of G-polygons.
Completeness Report
Data completeness of the TIGER/Line Shapefiles reflects the contents of the Census MAF/TIGER database at the time the TIGER/Line Shapefiles were created.
Lineage
Source
Originator
U.S. Census Bureau. Geography Division
Publication Date
Unpublished material
Title
Census MAF/TIGER database
Type of Source Media
online
Source Temporal Extent
Time Period Information
Range of Dates/Times
Beginning Date
201001
Ending Date
201007
Source Currentness Reference
Publication Date
Contribution
The selected geographic and cartographic information (line segments) are derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) database.
Spatial Data Organization Information
Indirect Spatial Reference Method
Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), ANSI, and feature names.
Direct Spatial Reference Method
Vector
Point and Vector Object Information
SDTS Terms Description
SDTS Point and Vector Object Type
G-polygon
Point and Vector Object Count
33120
Spatial Reference Information
Horizontal Coordinate System Definition
Geographic
Latitude Resolution
0.000458
Longitude Resolution
0.000458
Geographic Coordinate Units
Decimal degrees
Geodetic Model
Horizontal Datum Name
North American Datum of 1983 in the 48 contiguous states, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and the Pacific Island Areas.
Ellipsoid Name
Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major Axis
6378137
Denominator of Flattening Ratio
298257
Entity and Attribute Information
Entity Type
Entity Type Label
TG10USZCTA5.shp
Entity Type Definition
2010 Census 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA5) National
Entity Type Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
Attributes
OBJECTID
Internal feature number. (Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.)
Definition Source
ESRI
ZCTA5CE10
2010 Census 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area code
00401 to 99950
Five-digit ZIP code
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
GEOID10
2010 Census 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area identifier, 2010 Census 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area code (2010 Census 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area code found in ZCTA5CE10)
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
CLASSFP10
2010 Census Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 55 class code
B5
Five-digit ZCTA
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
MTFCC10
MAF/TIGER feature class code
G6350
ZIP Code Tabulation Area (5-digit)
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
FUNCSTAT10
2010 Census functional status
S
Statistical entity
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
ALAND10
2010 Census land area (square meters)
0 to 9,999,999,999,999
Blank
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
AWATER10
2010 Census water area (square meters)
0 to 9,999,999,999,999
Blank
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
INTPTLAT10
2010 Census latitude of the internal point
00
Blank
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
INTPTLON10
2010 Census longitude of the internal point
00
Blank
Definition Source
U.S. Census Bureau
SHAPE
Feature geometry. (Coordinates defining the features.)
Definition Source
ESRI
SHAPE.AREA
Feature area.
Definition Source
ESRI
SHAPE.LEN
Feature length.
Definition Source
ESRI
Distribution Information
Format Name
Shapefile
Distributor
Harvard Geospatial Library
Online Access
http://hgl.harvard.edu/
Name
Metadata Reference Information
Metadata Date
20120110
Metadata Contact
Contact Information
Contact Organization Primary
Contact Organization
Harvard Geospatial Library
Contact Position
Geospatial Resources Cataloger
Contact Address
Address
Harvard University Library
Address
Office For Information Systems
Address
90 Mount Auburn Street
City
Cambridge
State or Province
MA
Postal Code
02138
Country
USA
Contact Voice Telephone
617-495-2417
Contact Facsimile Telephone
617-496-0440
Contact Electronic Mail Address
hgl_ref@hulmail.harvard.edu
Hours of Service
Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm EST-USA
Metadata Standard Name
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Metadata Standard Version
FGDC-STD-001-1998
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