ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy An economy is an area of th ...

for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the

Census 2000 The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 c ...

and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community Survey data sets. This new entity was developed to overcome the difficulties in precisely defining the land area covered by each ZIP code. Defining the extent of an area is necessary in order to tabulate census data for that area. ZCTAs are generalized area representations of the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

(USPS) ZIP code service areas, but are not the same as ZIP codes. Individual USPS ZIP codes can cross

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

, place,

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

census tract A census tract, census area, census district or meshblock is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Sometimes these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exi ...

, census block group and

census block A census block is the smallest geographic unit used by the United States Census Bureau for tabulation of 100-percent data (data collected from all houses, rather than a sample of houses). The number of blocks in the United States, including Puerto R ...

boundaries, so the Census Bureau asserts that "there is no correlation between ZIP codes and Census Bureau geography". Moreover, the USPS frequently realigns, merges, or splits ZIP codes to meet changing needs. These changes are usually not reflected in the annual

TIGER The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

releases. Each ZCTA is constructed by aggregating the Census 2010 blocks whose addresses use a given ZIP code. In assembling census statistical units to create ZCTAs, the Census Bureau took the ZIP code used by the majority of addresses in each census unit at the time the data was compiled. As a result, some addresses end up with a ZCTA code that is different from their ZIP code. ZCTAs are not developed for ZIP codes that comprise only a small number of addresses. Several ZCTAs represent ZIPs that no longer exist due to realignment by the USPS. There are approximately 42,000 ZIP Codes and 32,000 ZCTAs. The reason that there is not one ZCTA for every ZIP Code is that only populated ''areas'' are included in the Census data, and thus ZIP Codes that only serve PO Boxes have no corresponding ZCTA.

References

External links

United States Census Bureau ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs)
{{ZIP Code United States Census Bureau geography ZIP code

See also

References

External links