GIS Data Sources: TIGER 2000 Filename Conventions

This information regarding the file naming conventions, used in the TIGER 2000 Census data into Shapefile format that can be downloaded for free from ESRI's census data site, is presented here as-is for easy reference.  The information should also be in a file included with the data that you download from Geography Network.

[Note: Links have been updated from Esri's original documentation to reflect current URL's.]

INTRODUCTION

We are pleased that you are using the Census TIGER^® 2000 data available through Geography Network. The Geography Network TIGER^® data set includes over 70,000 compressed files of geographic data that are available for download. Each file represents a data layer for a single county in the United States. As data layers are requested for download, ESRI assembles all the files and packages them as a single .ZIP file for download

HOW TO ACCESS THE DATA

To access the data, you must decompress the .ZIP file that was downloaded and then decompress each of data layer .ZIP files it contains. This can be done using a compression tool such as WinZip or PK Unzip or using ESRI's ArcExplorer software. Once the data layers have been decompressed, you can display the data using GIS sofware such as ESRI's ArcExplorer or ArcView GIS. Simply use the "add theme" function for each of the shapefiles.

DATA DOCUMENTATION

Documentation for the TIGER^® 2000 data can be found on the Census Web site at the URL addresses below:

• Census TIGER^® Overview: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger
• TIGER/Line^® Files Technical Documentation: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/rd_2ktiger/tgrrd2k.pdf
• TIGER/Line^® Files Metadata: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/rd_2ktiger/tlrdmeta.txt

Note: TIGER^® and TIGER/Line^® are registered trademarks of the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Each data file name is a combination of a layer abbreviation (e.g. 'blk') and a 5-digit County FIPS Code (e.g. '53001') and the file extension (e.g. '.zip' or '.shp'). For example, the compressed county data layer for Cook County, Illinois would be named 'cty17031.zip'. The data layers contained within the .ZIP file contain a TIGER^® abbreviation prefix (i.e. 'tgr') followed by the County FIPS and layer abbreviation (e.g. 'tgr17031cty.shp'). Below is a list of the abbreviations for each of the TIGER^® data layers.