2010 TIGER/Line Shapefiles User Notes

User Note 1: Incorrect Voting District Names

The following voting disticts in Alaska are named incorrectly in the 2010 TIGER/Line Shapefiles:

21-415 Chugach Hills No. 2 Precinct in Anchorage Municipality (02020) should be Chugach Foothills No. 2 Precinct

06-610 Mcgrath Precinct in Bethel Census Area (02050) should be McGrath Precinct

37-710 Clarks Point Precinct in Dillingham Census Area (02070) should be Clark’s Point Precinct

04-410 Mendenhall Valley No. 1 District in Juneau City and Borough (02110) should be Mendenhall Valley No. 1 Precinct

34-870 Salamatoff Precinct in Kenai Peninsula Borough (02122) should be Salamatof Precinct

User Note 2: Census 2000 Blocks

There is the possibility that some Census 2000 blocks are missing from this version of the shapefiles. If a state boundary was modified in our database a Census 2000 block may have moved from one state to the adjacent state. Due to the timing requirements for this version of the shapefiles these blocks will be missing from the Census 2000 block inventory. Complete coverage of Census 2000 blocks can be found in previous versions of the TIGER/Line Shapefiles.

NOTE: Please see User Note 18 for additional information.

User Note 3: All Lines Shapefile and Feature Names Relationship File

The feature names in the All Lines shapefile may not be consistent from one edge to the next along the extent of a road feature. The All Lines shapefile identifies the primary street name for an edge, however some primary names and alternate names have been flipped resulting in a primary feature name for one edge being identified as an alternate name on another. All feature names (featname.dbf), whether primary or alternate, can be related to the All Lines shapefile (edges.shp) by matching the TLIDs.

User Note 4: All Lines Shapefile - Permanent Face ID on the Right of the Edge (TFIDR) and Permanent Face ID on the Left of the Edge (TFIDL)

In the All Lines shapefile, the permanent face ID on the left of the edge (TFIDL) value or the permanent face ID on the right of the edge (TFIDR) value will be blank for edges on the outer boundary of a county and for edges on the outer boundary of the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The TFID (either left or right side) that does not appear in the attribute table of the county file will appear in the adjacent county's attribute table. This may impact users who are creating layers and topologies from the All Lines Shapefiles.

User Note 5: All Lines Shapefile - Hancock, IL road name directionals

The Hancock County, IL TIGER county road name directions appear to be switched for the entire county. This problem was confirmed by the Census Bureau Headquarter Geographers, Chicago Regional Office Geographers and Hancock County, IL officials. Hancock County Road names are based on a Northing and Easting coordinate grid system. County Roads with Northing directionals should have an East-West orientation and County Roads with Easting directionals should have a North-South orientation in Hancock County, IL. The Hancock County Road name directionals are opposite in the MAF/TIGER Database (MTDB). Northing directionals have an incorrect North-South orientation and the Easting County Roads have an incorrect East-West orientation in Hancock County.

User Note 6: Address Ranges Relationship File - Plus 4 (ZIP Plus 4 Code) Values

The ZIP plus 4 code values will not appear in the 2010 TIGER/Line Shapefiles.

User Note 7: Topological Faces (Polygons With All Geocodes) Shapefile - AWATER and ALAND measurement field

Topological faces with the LWFLAG values: G (Glacier), I (Intermittent Water), L (Land) and S (Marsh/Swamp) are considered land areas for the calculation of the Areawater shapefile, ALAND measurement field. Only topological faces with the LWFLAG value of P (Perennial Water) are used to calculate water areas in the Areawater shapefile, AWATER measurement field. Glaciers, intermittent lakes, and marsh/swamp are considered water features although the area within them is classified as land for area measurement purposes.

User Note 8: Finding Roads, Railroads, and Other Linear Features

The 2010 TIGER/Line shapefiles include state-based files containing primary and secondary roads and county-based files containing all roads. Nation-based railroad and primary road files will be coming out in 2011 as part of the later phases of the 2010 TIGER/Line shapefile release.

The All Lines Shapefile (Edges) includes all linear feature geography such as roads (street features), railroads, hydrography, and other linear features. The All Lines Shapefile is available at the county level only. There are several attribute flags within the shapefile that indicate if the feature is a road, rail, or water. Each edge has a unique TLID (TIGER/Line identifier) value.

More detailed information regarding these files can be found in the technical documentation located at URL: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp2010/documentation.html

User Note 9: Census 2000 Elementary School District Shapefiles and Census 2000 Unified School District Shapefiles

Spatial data are incorrect for a number of elementary and unified school districts, creating tiny holes in school district coverage. The state and county names, state and county FIPS codes, and school districts where this occurs are below:

Maricopa, AZ (04013)
between elementary school districts (ELSDs) 01380 and 04320

Yuma, AZ (04027) and Pima AZ (04109)
between ELSD 09600 in Yuma and unified school district (UNSD) 99997 (School District Not Defined) in Pima

Yuma, AZ (04027)
between ELSDs 05220 and 03900

Kern, CA (06029)
between ELSDs 04560 and 24330

Nevada, CA (06057)
between ELSDs 26820 and 00012

Orange, CA (06059)
between ELSD 14730 and UNSD 05880

San Bernardino, CA (06071)
between ELSDs 01710 and 41040

Santa Clara, CA (06085)
between ELSDs 22830 and 22350
between ELSD 22830 and UNSD 34590

San Mateo, CA (06081)
between ELSDs 17190 and 34920

Shasta, CA (06089)
between ELSD 27040 and UNSD 14950

Sonoma, CA (06097)
between ELSDs 32640 and 19410
between ELSDs 36180 and 40230

Ventura, CA (06111)
between ELSD 28170 and UNSD 09640
between ELSDs 29220 and 32760 (2)
between ELSD 30990 and UNSD 09640
between ELSDs 37140 and 30990

Clinton, IL (17027)
between ELSDs 37470 and 07010 (2)
between ELSD 07010 and UNSD 08460 (2)

Livingston, IL (17105)
between ELSDs 29520 and 00065

Ogle, IL, (17141)
between ELSDs 21130 and 14410
between UNSDs 25690 and 21300

Tazewell, IL (17179)
between ELSD 31080 and UNSD 26800

Union, IL (17181)
between ELSD 03750 and UNSD 12480

Washington, IL (17189)
between ELSDs 19740 and 27720
between ELSDs 19740 and 40680

Hancock, ME (23009)
between ELSD 14770 and UNSD 06260

Chouteau, MT (30015)
between ELSDs 03760 and 22750

Flathead, MT (30029)
Between ELSDs 15570 and 02850

Wheatland, MT (30107)
between ELSDs 13440 and 26790 (2),
between ELSDs 13440 and 15360

Cherry, NE (31031)
between ELSD 45270 and UNSD 74040

Hall, NE (31079)
within ELSD 19930
within ELSD 78930

Sheridan, NE (31161)
between ELSDs 60900 and 67290

Grant, WI (55043)
within UNSD 06870

Dodge, WI (55027)
between ELSD 10410 and UNSD 06780

User Note 10: 2000 Elementary School District Shapefile, 2000 Secondary School District Shapefile, 2000 Unified School District Shapefiles

The highrange and lorange grade ranges are missing from all 2000 elementary school districts. The lorange grade ranges are missing from all 2000 secondary and 2000 unified school districts.

User Note 11: Census 2000 American Indian Tribal Subdivision Shapefile for South Dakota

In the Census 2000 American Indian Tribal Subdivision Shapefile for South Dakota, a sliver of Porcupine District is missing the TRSUBFP00 code as this was not a valid state to tribal subdivision relationship.

User Note 12: Classification of Roads

The Primary and Secondary Roads shapefiles include all road segments with a MAF/TIGER Feature Classification Code (MTFCC) of S1100 (Primary Road) or S1200 (Secondary Road). Gaps in the primary and secondary road coverage may occur if a road segment is misclassified and assigned a different MTFCC. One example of where this has occurred is Attala County, MS. To obtain complete road coverage, download the 'All Roads' shapefiles, available by county.

User Note 13: Corrections to the 2010 Redistricting TIGER/Line Shapefile Technical Documentation

In addition to the correction of some minor typing errors, the following corrections have been made to the technical documentation. The corrected technical documentation is now available online.

1. File name correction for block group shapefiles:

tl_2010_<state FIPS>_bg10.shp
tl_2010_<state FIPS>_bg00.shp
tl_2010_<state-county FIPS>_bg10.shp
tl_2010_<state-county FIPS>_bg00.shp

2. File name correction for census tract shapefile:

tl_2010_<state FIPS>_tract10.shp (shown as “tl_2010_<state FIPS>_tract00.shp” for the 2010 Census layout)

3. Record Layouts added for the following shapefiles in both the body and appendices of the document:

Census Tract State-based Shapefile Record Layout (Census 2000)

File Name: tl_2010_<state FIPS>_tract00.shp

Field	Length	Type	Description
STATEFP00	2	String	Census 2000 state FIPS code
COUNTYFP00	3	String	Census 2000 county FIPS code
TRACTCE00	6	String	Census 2000 census tract code
CTIDFP00	11	String	Census 2000 census tract identifier; a concatenation of state FIPS code, county FIPS code, and census tract code
NAME00	7	String	Census 2000 census tract name, including the decimal point and decimal digits if a non-zero census tract suffix exists, excluding trailing zeros unless the zeros are part of a non-zero census tract suffix, and excluding any leading zeros
NAMELSAD00	20	String	Census 2000 translated legal/statistical area description and the census tract name
MTFCC00	5	String	MAF/TIGER feature class code (G5020)
FUNCSTAT00	1	String	Census 2000 functional status
ALAND00	14	Number	Census 2000 land area
AWATER00	14	Number	Census 2000 water area
INTPTLAT00	11	String	Census 2000 latitude of the internal point
INTPTLON00	12	String	Census 2000 longitude of the internal point

Census Tract County-based Shapefile Record Layout (2010 Census)

File Name: tl_2010_<state-county FIPS>_tract10.shp

Field	Length	Type	Description
STATEFP10	2	String	2010 Census state FIPS code
COUNTYFP10	3	String	2010 Census county FIPS code
TRACTCE10	6	String	2010 Census census tract code
GEOID10	11	String	Census tract identifier; a concatenation of 2010 Census state FIPS code, county FIPS code, and census tract code
NAME10	7	String	2010 Census census tract name, this is the census tract code converted to an integer or integer plus two-digit decimal if the last two characters of the code are not both zeros.
NAMELSAD10	20	String	2010 Census translated legal/statistical area description and the census tract name
MTFCC10	5	String	MAF/TIGER feature class code (G5020)
FUNCSTAT10	1	String	2010 Census functional status
ALAND10	14	Number	2010 Census land area
AWATER10	14	Number	2010 Census water area
INTPTLAT10	11	String	2010 Census latitude of the internal point
INTPTLON10	12	String	2010 Census longitude of the internal point

Census 2000 Block Group (State-based) Shapefile

File Name: tl_2010_<state FIPS>_bg00.shp

Field	Length	Type	Description
STATEFP00	2	String	Census 2000 state FIPS code
COUNTYFP00	3	String	Census 2000 county FIPS code
TRACTCE00	6	String	Census 2000 census tract code
BLKGRPCE00	1	String	Census 2000 block group number
BKGPIDFP00	12	String	Census 2000 census block group identifier; a concatenation of the Census 2000 state FIPS code, county FIPS code, census tract code, and block group number
NAMELSAD00	13	String	Census 2000 translated legal/statistical area description and the block group number
MTFCC00	5	String	MAF/TIGER feature class code (G5030)
FUNCSTAT00	1	String	Census 2000 functional status
ALAND00	14	Number	Census 2000 land area
AWATER00	14	Number	Census 2000 water area
INTPTLAT00	11	String	Census 2000 latitude of the internal point
INTPTLON00	12	String	Census 2000 longitude of the internal point

2010 Census Block Group (County-based) Shapefile

File Name: tl_2010_<state-county FIPS>_bg10.shp

Field	Length	Type	Description
STATEFP10	2	String	2010 Census state FIPS code
COUNTYFP10	3	String	2010 Census county FIPS code
TRACTCE10	6	String	2010 Census census tract code
BLKGRPCE10	1	String	2010 Census block group number
GEOID10	12	String	Census block group identifier; a concatenation of 2010 Census state FIPS code, county FIPS code, census tract code, and block group number
NAMELSAD10	13	String	2010 Census translated legal/statistical area description and the block group number
MTFCC10	5	String	MAF/TIGER feature class code (G5030)
FUNCSTAT10	1	String	2010 Census functional status
ALAND10	14	Number	2010 Census land area
AWATER10	14	Number	2010 Census water area
INTPTLAT10	11	String	2010 Census latitude of the internal point
INTPTLON10	12	String	2010 Census longitude of the internal point

4. Fields deleted from the Address Range Relationship File (addr.dbf):

FROMARMID
TOARMID

5. File name correction for subminor civil divisions:

tl_2010_72_submcd10.shp (previously shown as “tl_2010_<state (78)–county FIPS>_submcd10.shp”)

All corrections were made to the technical documentation and posted on the website on or after January 7, 2011. These changes will not be reflected in the technical documentation on the DVDs sent to the states.

User Note 14: Congressional Districts in Michigan and Ohio

Michigan's congressional district plan, as provided to the Census Bureau, did not provide congressional district assignments for water blocks within the Great Lakes for the 111th Congress. The 2010 TIGER/Line Shapefiles contain 633 water blocks that should be coded to no congressional district and are incorrectly assigned to congressional districts 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 12-15. These changes occurred in the following 21 counties: Alger (003), Allegan (005), Alpena (007), Antrim (009), Bay (017), Benzie (019), Charlevoix (029), Chippewa (033), Huron (063), Iosco (069), Mackinac (097), Macomb (099), Manistee (101), Muskegon (121), Ottawa (139), Presque Isle (141), Sanilac (151), Schoolcraft (153), Tuscola (157), Van Buren (159), and Wayne (163).

Ohio's congessional district plan, as provided to the Census Bureau, did not provide congressional district assignments for water blocks within the Great Lakes for the 111th Congress. The 2010 TIGER/Line Shapefiles contain 118 water blocks that should be coded to no congressional district and are incorrectly assigned to congressional districts 5, 9, and 13. These changes occurred in the following five counties: Erie (043), Lorain (093), Lucas (095), Ottawa (123), and Sandusky (143).

User Note 15: Joining TIGER/Line Shapefiles to demographic data from the new American FactFinder

The GEOID2 field no longer exists in the new American FactFinder data downloads. Users must now create this column using Microsoft Excel following these steps:

Insert a column in between columns A- GEO ID and column B - Geography. Then highlight the column labeled ID.
Click on "Data" tab at top.
Choose "Text to Columns" from Data menu
Select delimited, hit next:
Set delimiter to other: S and click next.
In the Data Preview box, select the second column. Then select "Text" in the Column Data Format box
The resulting column B is equivalent to the GEO ID2 column in legacy AFF downloads

In addition, users must now create database compatible headers in the tables before using the data in a GIS. Users must remove the multiple lines of headers and replace it with a single, short name.

Users may wish to use the summary files instead of the tables from American FactFinder. The 2010 Census P.L. 94-171 Summary Files can be accessed on our ftp site. Additional data will be added as it becomes available.

Please direct any questions related to American FactFinder to (800) 923-8282 or ask a question. For questions about the TIGER/Line Shapefiles or other geographic products please e-mail us: geo.tiger@census.gov or call (301) 763-1128.

User Note 16: Re-release of Selected New York Shapefiles

On February 23, 2011, selected New York layers were replaced. Please see the list of affected layers for additional information.

User Note 17: Files Added to Download Sites

Some shapefiles and relationship files were inadvertently omitted from our website, and were then added in early February. The following have been added to our download interface and layer-based FTP site:

All files for Ballard County, KY
2000 and 2010 block, 2000 and 2010 tract, and 2010 voting district shapefiles for Citrus County, FL
2010 voting district shapefile for Jefferson County, IL

The following have been added to our state-based FTP site:

Some files for Vernon and all files for Vilas, Walworth, Washburn, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca, Waushara, and Winnebago Counties, WI

One shapefile was replaced in the download interface and the layer-based FTP site after the original file was found to be damaged:

Roads shapefile for Citrus County, FL

NOTE: Other files in the affected states or counties listed above may have been re-copied to the FTP sites and download interface at the same time that the missing or corrected files were added. However, those files are identical to the original versions of the files.

User Note 18: Files Replaced on March 21, 2011

On March 21, 2011, the following files were replaced in the download interface, layer-based FTP site, and state-based FTP site:

Census 2000 shapefiles for Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia (to correct the potentially missing blocks described in User Note 2).
Topological Faces (Polygons With All Geocodes) Shapefiles for all counties

User Note 19: Inconsistent Name and Code Assignments in State Legislative Districts

There are inconsistent code and name assignments between state legislative districts, upper chamber (SLDU) and state legislative districts, lower chamber (SLDL) in coastal and water tributary areas in Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico. These SLDU/SLDL inconsistencies were introduced when land area was changed to water area or vice versa and not all of the corresponding SLDU or SLDL codes were updated. In some cases, one chamber may have been coded to the shore (land) while the other chamber, in the same area, was coded to the water. (Some states designated SLDU and SLDL assignments to “ZZZ” in water for area not defined by any SLDU or SLDL.) These inconsistencies are reflected in the 2010 Census geographic products but have been reconciled and will not appear in future products. The updated assignments are shown below.

Column header definitions:

STATEFP: State FIPS Code
COUNTYFP: County FIPS Code
TRACTCE: Census Tract
BLOCKCE: Census Block
SLDUST: State Legislative District--Upper Chamber
SLDLST: State Legislative District--Lower Chamber
AREALAND: Area Land
AREAWATER: Area Water
ASSIGNMENT UPDATE: Assignment Update

STATEFP	COUNTYFP	TRACTCE	BLOCKCE	SLDUST	SLDLST	AREALAND	AREAWATER	ASSIGNMENT UPDATE
22	051	020513	2002	010	ZZZ	0	14059	SLDUST 010 corrected to ZZZ
22	051	020502	3008	010	ZZZ	0	13847	SLDUST 010 corrected to ZZZ
23	029	955900	2058	ZZZ	030	0	417	SLDLST 030 corrected to ZZZ
23	029	955600	1094	ZZZ	031	0	598292	SLDLST 031 corrected to ZZZ
23	029	955900	2064	ZZZ	030	0	4310010	SLDLST 030 corrected to ZZZ
23	029	955900	2054	ZZZ	030	0	743306	SLDLST 030 corrected to ZZZ
23	029	955600	1114	ZZZ	031	0	13598	SLDLST 031 corrected to ZZZ
23	031	034001	4031	002	ZZZ	0	410733	SLDUST 002 corrected to ZZZ
25	001	014700	2052	047	ZZZ	0	1295	SLDUST 047 corrected to ZZZ
25	001	014700	1052	047	ZZZ	0	413	SLDUST 047 corrected to ZZZ
25	005	644101	2007	021	ZZZ	0	27219	SLDUST 021 corrected to ZZZ
25	005	644101	2013	021	ZZZ	0	10842	SLDUST 021 corrected to ZZZ
25	005	650300	2012	022	ZZZ	0	13607	SLDUST 022 corrected to ZZZ
25	021	416400	1001	044	ZZZ	0	816	SLDUST 044 corrected to ZZZ
25	021	416400	1004	044	ZZZ	0	11234	SLDUST 044 corrected to ZZZ
72	015	280201	4026	ZZZ	030	0	43344	SLDLST 030 corrected to ZZZ
72	017	590100	1000	ZZZ	013	0	1502416	SLDLST 013 corrected to ZZZ
72	027	320100	1001	ZZZ	015	0	243267	SLDLST 015 corrected to ZZZ
72	049	950500	1051	ZZZ	036	0	2004	SLDLST 036 corrected to ZZZ
72	057	270201	1109	ZZZ	030	0	5990	SLDUST ZZZ corrected to 006
72	057	270201	1115	ZZZ	030	0	6293	SLDUST ZZZ corrected to 006

User Note 20: Files Added to Download Site

We discovered that on our ftp site by entity type, data for counties that existed for Census 2000 but not for the 2010 Census were not available. This affects only the Census 2000 vintage geography. These counties were available on the ftp site by state. The counties that existed for Census 2000 and not for the 2010 Census are:

02201 Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Census Area, AK
02232 Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, AK
02280 Wrangell-Petesrsburg Census Area, AK
51560 Clifton Forge city, VA

User Note 21: Additional Congressional District Codes for Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin

Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin’s congressional district plans for the 111th Congress, as provided to the Census Bureau, did not provide congressional district assignments for water blocks within the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Over the past decade and where appropriate, the Census Bureau has recoded some of these water blocks to land blocks. Also, many islands are now coded to individual Census 2010 tabulation land blocks. The result has been that some land blocks in the 2010 Census geographic and data products are not associated with a congressional district code. The Census Bureau has provided a CD code for each of these blocks in this table. These congressional district codes will be assigned to these blocks for future products and will be maintained until the new 113th Congressional plans are received and inserted into our geographic database.

User Note 22: ZIP Code Tabulation Area Shapefiles Released

On May 11, 2011, national and state-based ZIP Code Tabulation Area Shapefiles were released. Additionally, the Topological Faces (Polygons With All Geocodes) Shapefiles were replaced with versions that contain 2010 ZIP Code Tabulation Area codes.

Posted May 12, 2011

User Note 23: Island Area Shapefiles Released

On June 23, 2011, shapefiles for the Island Areas (American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U. S. Virgin Islands) were released.

Posted June 23, 2011

User Note 24: New England City and Town Area Shapefiles Replaced

The state-based New England City and Town Area shapefiles for all six New England states were replaced on June 30, 2011. The new files include NECTAs that were inadvertently omitted from the original versions of the files.

Posted June 30, 2011

User Note 25: Error in New England City and Town Area Division Shapefile

The New England City and Town Area (NECTA) Division shapefile for New Hampshire erroneously contains some NECTA divisions that are located entirely in Massachusetts.

The following NECTA divisions exist in New Hampshire and should appear in the New Hampshire NECTA division shapefile: Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH; Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, MA-NH; Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH; and Nashua, NH-MA.

The following NECTA divisions exist only in Massachusetts and should not appear in the New Hampshire NECTA division shapefile: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA; Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA; Framingham, MA; Peabody, MA; and Taunton-Norton-Raynham, MA.

Posted September 8, 2011

Questions or Comments?
Email us: geo.tiger@census.gov
Call us: (301) 763-1128

2010 TIGER/Line® Shapefiles User Notes