Reference Resources
for Understanding Census Bureau Geography

Hierarchical Diagrams of Census Bureau Geography

• American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Home Lands diagram [PDF]
• Census Bureau Legal and Statistical Geographic Entities [PDF]

Census Regions and Divisions of the United States

• [PDF] or [Text]

Geographic Glossaries and Guides

• Geographic Terms and Concepts (2008) [PDF] [TXT]
• Geographic Terms and Concepts (2000) [PDF] [HTML]
• Geographic Changes for Census 2000 + Glossary
• Geographic Areas Reference Manual (GARM) (1990 Census)
• Guide to Online Cartographic and Geographic Resources [PDF]
• Substantial County Changes 1970-Present

Geographic Area Criteria, Geographic Codes and Census Tract Resources

• 2008 County Subdivision and Place Information
• Census 2000 Urban and Rural Classification
  Federal Register Notice; Urban Area Files; Urban Cluster Files; Major Airports
• Census Tract Locating Resources
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Codes (formerly FIPS)
• Metropolitan Areas
• New Census Block Strategy for Census 2000 Blocks
• ZCTAs^tm (ZIP Code^® Tabulation Areas)
  Area representations of USPS ZIP Code service areas.
• U.S. Postal Service ZIP Code data
  Information on the Census Bureau's position regarding ZIP Code data

Cartographic and Geographic Information Systems

• Map Image Metafile (MIM)
  ASCII coded, device independent, cartographic data format
• Cartographic Boundary Files
  Generalized boundary files in ARC/INFO EXPORT (.e00), ArcView Shapefile (.shp) and ARC/INFO Ungenerate (ASCII) formats

Census 2000 Reference Files

• 2000 U.S. Gazetteer
  Places, ZIP Code Tabulation Areas^TM, County Subdivision and County files extracted from Census 2000 SF1.
• Census 2000 Tabulation Tallies
  Number of Census Tracts, Block Groups and Blocks by State and State Equivalent Area for Census 2000.

1990 Census Reference Files

• 1990 U.S. Gazetteer
  1990 vintage Places, ZIP Code, MCD and County files extracted from 1990 STF1A
• 1990 Area and Population Density using Land Area
  For States, Counties, Metropolitan Areas, and Places.
• 1990 Urbanized Area Codes and Names [PDF]
• 1990 Census Tract/Block Numbering Areas
  CensusTracts/BNA codes listed by County within State