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Geographic Comparability File, 2010 to 2000 County Subdivisions

Concepts

The geographic comparability file provides a simple relationship between each 2010 Census county subdivision and its comparable Census 2000 county subdivision (if comparability exists) with an additional comments section to describe more detailed changes.  For the vast majority of records, there is a one-to-one relationship between a 2010 Census county subdivision and a Census 2000 county subdivision, although names and codes may have changed between censuses.  Where a 2010 Census record has no comparable Census 2000 county subdivision information, it is the result of new subdivisions being created from existing areas or the 2010 Census county subdivisions have changed so dramatically as to preclude any comparability.  The NOTES column provides additional information if required.

Comparability for governmental county subdivisions is based on continuing governmental status although there may have been substantial boundary changes or other changes that modified the boundaries.  For nonfunctioning legal county subdivisions and statistical entities, comparability is based on the entity still being defined for its "core" area.  In some states, most notably Louisiana, Maryland, and Mississippi, county governments completely re-drew the county subdivision boundaries; in these cases the NOTES column uses the term "Redistricted" to indicate a lack of any comparability. Tennessee changed its county subdivisions from statistical census county divisions (CCDs) to legal County Commissioner Districts and there is no comparability for any Tennessee county subdivisions.

All comparability is based on a preliminary compilation and review of data; some changes may appear in later products.  The Census Bureau, however, believes this file to be overwhelmingly accurate, and is releasing this preliminary version in response to requests for information about county subdivision relationships.  The final version of this file is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2012.

Files

These files contain diacritical marks.

Note:  In the Excel file, there are three GEOID10 records - 3706794068, 3711993268, and 3910383426 - where the number of characters used in the NOTES column exceeds the ability to display the text in Excel.

Microsoft Excel File (Compressed) [1.1MB]                         Text File (Compressed) [0.5MB]

File Layout and Description

Field	Description
GEOID10	Concatenated STATEFP10 + COUNTYFP10 + COUSUBFP10
STATEFP10	2010 Census 2-digit FIPS State Code
COUNTYFP10	2010 Census 3-digit FIPS County Code
COUSUBFP10	2010 Census 5-digit County Subdivision Code
ANSICODE10	2010 Census 8-digit ANSI Code
NAMELSAD10	2010 Census Place Name with Legal/Statistical Area Description
FULLNAMELSAD10	2010 Census Place Name with Legal/Statistical Area Description plus County Name with Legal/Statistical Area Description and State Name
GEOID00	Concatenated STATEFP00 + COUNTYFP00 + COUSUBFP00
STATEFP00	Census 2000 2-digit FIPS State Code
COUNTYFP00	Census 2000 3-digit FIPS County Code
COUSUBFP00	Census 2000 5-digit FIPS County Subdivision Code
NAMELSAD00	Census 2000 Place Name with Legal/Statistical Area Description
NOTES	Notes showing more detailed changes

A NOTE is included when:

1. An entity is new for the 2010 Census.
2. The estimated population in a changed area is greater than 5% of either the Census 2000 entity or the 2010 Census entity.
3. The area affected by a change is greater than 10% of either the Census 2000 entity or the 2010 Census entity (except for so-called "false" entities, that is, incorporated places that also serve as county subdivisions).  For false entities, 25% was used as the threshold for area change.
4. The estimated population in a changed area was greater than 500.
5. The area of change was greater than 10,000,000 square meters (3.86 square miles).
6. To show the disposition of any Census 2000 deleted county subdivisions.
7. There is no comparable Census 2000 entity.

No NOTE implies exact or near exact comparability between the listed 2010 Census and Census 2000 county entities.