Gazetteer File Record Layouts

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Gazetteer File Record Layouts

1990
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1990

Counties


The Counties file contains all counties in the U.S. as of the 1990 Census. This is a tab delimited ASCII text file with one line per record.There are 3,141 records.
Column Description
Columns 1-2 State FIPS Code
Columns 6-8 County FIPS Code
Columns 10-75 Name. Includes name of county . Counties don't have a type, but do have the word "County" as part of the name.
Columns 77-78 State Abbreviation
Columns 80-88 Total Population (1990)
Columns 90-98 Number of Housing Units (1990)
Columns 100-109 Land area included (in thousandths of a square kilometer)
Columns 111-120 Water area included (in thousandths of a square kilometer)
Columns 122-130 Latitude (millionths of a degree: 10^6 units=1 deg). First character is (+) or (-), denoting N or S latitude, respectively.
Columns 132-141 Longitude (millionths of a degree). First character is (+) or (-), denoting E or W longitude, respectively.
Minor Civil Divisions (MCDs)


The MCDs file contains all MCDs and CCDs (county subdivisions record type 060) places in the U.S. as of the 1990 Census and is tab delimited ASCII text with one line per record.There are 36,289 records.
Column Description
Columns 1-2 State FIPS Code
Columns 4-8 County Subdivision FIPS Code
Columns 10-75 Name. Includes name of place/county and type of place (either city, town, borough, village, or CDP).
Columns 77-78 State Abbreviation
Columns 80-88 Total Population (1990)
Columns 90-98 Number of Housing Units (1990)
Columns 100-109 Land area included (in thousandths of a square kilometer)
Columns 111-120 Water area included (in thousandths of a square kilometer)
Columns 122-130 Latitude (millionths of a degree: 10^6 units=1 deg). First character is (+) or (-), denoting N or S latitude, respectively.
Columns 132-141 Longitude (millionths of a degree). First character is (+) or (-), denoting E or W longitude, respectively.
Columns 143-145 County FIPS Code
Places


The Place file contains all places in the U.S. and outlying areas (excluding MCDs and CCDs) as of the 1990 Census, and is a tab delimited ASCII text file with one line per record.There are 23,789 records. Some records contain special characters.
Column Description
Columns 1-2 State FIPS Code
Columns 4-8 Place FIPS Code (for places.txt unique ID for each place)
Columns 10-75 Name. Includes name of place and type (either city, town, borough, village, or CDP).
Columns 77-78 State Abbreviation
Columns 80-88 Total Population (1990)
Columns 90-98 Number of Housing Units (1990)
Columns 100-109 Land area included (in thousandths of a square kilometer)
Columns 111-120 Water area included (in thousandths of a square kilometer)
Columns 122-130 Latitude (millionths of a degree: 10^6 units=1 deg). First character is (+) or (-), denoting N or S latitude, respectively.
Columns 132-141 Longitude (millionths of a degree). First character is (+) or (-), denoting E or W longitude, respectively.
ZIP Code


The 1990 Zip Code by State file is a comma delimited ASCII text file with one record per line. There are 29,470 records.
Column Description
Column 1 State Fips Code
Column 2 5-digit Zipcode
Column 3 State Abbreviation
Column 4 Zip Code Name
Column 5 Longitude in Decimal Degrees (West is assumed, no minus sign)
Column 6 Latitude in Decimal Degrees (North is assumed, no plus sign)
Column 7 1990 Population (100%)
Column 8 Allocation Factor (decimal portion of state within zipcode)

Related Information

Reference Files

REFERENCE FILE

Gazetteer Files
Page Last Revised - September 2, 2026