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Information About Census
Geography
Geography is the integrating factor for all U.S. Census Bureau
products; it is the framework on
which the data rest. Through the Decennial Census, the Census Bureau reports data for a wide variety of geographic areas, ranging from the entire United States down to a census block. Census Bureau geography has many unique
aspects that may be unfamiliar to some data users. For this
reason, the Census Bureau provides several links to online
reference resources on the Geography Division Web page. Among
the resources, is the
Guide to Cartographic and Geographic
Information [PDF] which includes addresses to various
Geography Division Web pages.
Census 2000 Map Products
The Census Bureau has produced a wide variety of maps to
support users of Census 2000 data. They range from maps showing
the locations and boundaries of the smallest geographic entities
for which the Census Bureau tabulates data, such as the
Census 2000 Centers of
Population map series, census tract and census block maps,
to maps displaying Census 2000 results at the state and national
levels. Census 2000 marks the first time that all Census Bureau
maps are accessible to the public in digital form from the
Census Bureau's Web site.
Census 2000
TIGER/Line® Files
TIGER/Line® files are the public version of the
Census Bureau's TIGER® data base of geographic
features, such as roads and rivers, along with boundaries of
legal and statistical entities. The Census Bureau uses the
TIGER data base to create all its geographic products. This
product is used by people outside the Census Bureau who have
mapping and Geographic Information System (GIS) software to
create their own maps and conduct geographic analysis of data.
Other Geographic Products
In addition to the map and TIGER/Line products described above,
the Census Bureau also produces several specialized geographic
products: digital boundary files for most
census geographic entities; census block and census tract
relationship files that
identify census blocks and census tracts that changed
geographically or numerically for Census 2000.
Changes to
Geography for Census 2000
Changes were made to several geographic entities for which the
Census Bureau tabulated data from Census 2000. The Census
Bureau also created a new geographic entity, called a
ZIP Code Tabulation Area
(ZCTATM), in response to the public's need for
census data that can be related to geographic approximations
of the U.S. Postal Service's ZIP Codes. |
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denotes a file in Adobe’s Portable Document Format.
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Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
available free from Adobe.
