Slide 28 of 29
Notes:
To help users process information on CD-ROM, DVD, and to uniquely identify geographic areas, the Census Bureau uses a series of geographic identifiers which are generally numeric codes established by the National Institute of Standards, and known as FIPS or Federal Information Processing Standards codes.
In Census Bureau data products, you will find FIPS codes for higher level geographic units such as states, counties, places, congressional districts, etc.
The Census Bureau establishes its own set of codes as, for example, in the case of census tracts or blocks if there is no FIPS code for the geographic entity or if the FIPS codes is not adequate for data presentation.
These codes are used for each unique geography to allow users to link their own databases to the census data.
Speaker Note: (A census code exists for each state, but was not assigned in alphabetical sequence and serves to organize the states by census region and census division.)
