These datasets contain measures of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics by U.S. census tract for the years 1990-2022 and ZIP code tabulation area (ZCTA) for the years 2008-2022. Example measures include population density; population distribution by race, ethnicity, age, and income; income inequality by race and ethnicity; and proportion of population living below the poverty level, receiving public assistance, and female-headed or single parent families with kids. The datasets also contain a set of theoretically derived measures capturing neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and affluence, as well as a neighborhood index of Hispanic, foreign born, and limited English.

About this Dataset

US population by zip code

Category

Social Sciences

Keywords

Row Count

1586081

Price

Free

This dataset denotes ZIP Code centroid locations weighted by population. Population weighted centroids are a common tool for spatial analysis, particularly when more granular data is unavailable or researchers lack sophisticated geocoding tools. The ZIP Code Population Weighted Centroids allows researchers and analysts to estimate the center of population in a given geography rather than the geometric center.

U.S. ZIP Code Areas provides ZIP Code, postal district name, population, and area for the ZIP Code areas in the United States. U.S. ZIP Code Areas represents five-digit ZIP Code areas used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail more effectively. The first digit of a five-digit ZIP Code divides the United States into 10 large groups of states (or equivalent areas) numbered from 0 in the Northeast to 9 in the far West. Within these areas, each state is divided into an average of 10 smaller geographical areas, identified by the second and third digits. These digits, in conjunction with the first digit, represent a Sectional Center Facility (SCF) or a mail processing facility area. The fourth and fifth digits identify a post office, station, branch or local delivery area. The source of the boundaries is TomTom (June 2024) and the population estimates are from Esri Updated Demographics. This layer is updated annually.

ZIP Codes are administrative codes generated by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that refer to the geographic area covered by a specific set of mail delivery routes. The U.S. Census Bureau calculates and distributes aggregated social, economic, and demographic information for the population associated with "ZIP Code Tabulation Areas" (ZCTAs), which are roughly analogous to ZIP Codes and serve as identifiers for specific neighborhoods and communities. These aggregated census data, however, are unable to account for changes in ZIP Code boundaries that occur between decennial censuses, leading to measurement error and missing data problems for scholars who attempt to use the aggregated ZCTA data. The purpose of this crosswalk file is to allow researchers to overcome this limitation, enabling them to appropriately link spatial reference information (ZIP Codes) with characteristics of the populations to which they refer. Most ZIP Codes do not change boundaries in a decade, but a large enough percentage do as to create a problem with missing or mis-specified data. Boundary changes typically involve one or more of the following three processes, although a small number of cases do not conform to these typologies: (1) two or more existing ZIP Codes are combined to create a single surviving ZIP Code, (2) an existing ZIP Code is divided into multiple resulting ZIP Codes, and (3) boundaries between two or more existing ZIP Codes are altered. Each of these types of changes alters the geographic area that a ZIP Code refers to, and as such, the spatial unit identified by the ZIP Code includes a different population, with a different array of characteristics. By linking the spatial units associated with ZIP Codes as these boundary changes are enacted, the research team can both prevent the loss of observations due to missing data, and more accurately measure social, demographic, and economic characteristics associated with each ZIP Code. This data set identifies changes in ZIP Code boundaries between 1990 and 2020, and provides numeric codes that cluster the ZIP Codes into the smallest geographic unit, or group of ZIP Codes, that are consistent across a decade: 1990 - 2000, 2000 - 2010, and 2010 - 2020. This "crosswalk" covers the contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. Since much administrative data is available with ZIP Code as the smallest identifiable geography, ZIP Codes are often used to embed observations from administrative data (patients, businesses, survey respondents, etc.) within their social, demographic, and economic contexts. However, ZIP Code boundaries change over time, resulting in measurement error (matching observations to the wrong contextual unit) or missing data (due to an observation reporting a ZIP Code that did not exist at the beginning of the observational period). These data were collected, and the crosswalk created, in an attempt to resolve these data quality issues.

Free U.S. ZIP Code Database with 7 essential data fields for personal use. Includes all 42,000+ ZIP codes with city, state, latitude, longitude, classification, and 2020 Census population. Updated monthly with lifetime access. Download in CSV, Excel, Access, and SQL formats at no cost. Perfect for educational projects, address validation, basic mapping, and personal applications. No credit card required.

The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are approximate area representations of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) ZIP Code service areas that the Census Bureau creates to present statistical data for each decennial census. The Census Bureau delineates ZCTA boundaries for the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands once each decade following the decennial census. Data users should not use ZCTAs to identify the official USPS ZIP Code for mail delivery. The USPS makes periodic changes to ZIP Codes to support more efficient mail delivery. The Census Bureau uses tabulation blocks as the basis for defining each ZCTA. Tabulation blocks are assigned to a ZCTA based on the most frequently occurring ZIP Code for the addresses contained within that block. The most frequently occurring ZIP Code also becomes the five-digit numeric code of the ZCTA. These codes may contain leading zeros. Blocks that do not contain addresses but are surrounded by a single ZCTA (enclaves) are assigned to the surrounding ZCTA. Because the Census Bureau only uses the most frequently occurring ZIP Code to assign blocks, a ZCTA may not exist for every USPS ZIP Code. Some ZIP Codes may not have a matching ZCTA because too few addresses were associated with the specific ZIP Code or the ZIP Code was not the most frequently occurring ZIP Code within any of the blocks where it exists. The ZCTA boundaries in this release are those delineated following the 2020 Census.

This annual study provides selected income and tax items classified by State, ZIP Code, and the size of adjusted gross income. These data include the number of returns, which approximates the number of households; the number of personal exemptions, which approximates the population; adjusted gross income; wages and salaries; dividends before exclusion; and interest received. Data are based who reported on U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns (Forms 1040) filed with the IRS. SOI collects these data as part of its Individual Income Tax Return (Form 1040) Statistics program, Data by Geographic Areas, ZIP Code Data.

This data package has the purpose to offer data for demographic indicators, part of 5-years American Community Census, that could be needed in the analysis made along with health-related data or as stand-alone. The American Community Survey based on 5-years estimates is, according to U.S Census Bureau, the most reliable, because the samples used are the largest and the data collected cover all country areas, regardless of the population number.

Abstract

A crosswalk dataset matching US ZIP codes to corresponding county codes

Documentation

The denominators used to calculate the address ratios are the ZIP code totals. When a ZIP is split by any of the other geographies, that ZIP code is duplicated in the crosswalk file.

**Example: **ZIP code 03870 is split by two different Census tracts, 33015066000 and 33015071000, which appear in the tract column. The ratio of residential addresses in the first ZIP-Tract record to the total number of residential addresses in the ZIP code is .0042 (.42%). The remaining residential addresses in that ZIP (99.58%) fall into the second ZIP-Tract record.

So, for example, if one wanted to allocate data from ZIP code 03870 to each Census tract located in that ZIP code, one would multiply the number of observations in the ZIP code by the residential ratio for each tract associated with that ZIP code.

https://redivis.com/fileUploads/4ecb405e-f533-4a5b-8286-11e56bb93368%3E" alt="">(Note that the sum of each ratio column for each distinct ZIP code may not always equal 1.00 (or 100%) due to rounding issues.)

County definition

In the United States, a county is an administrative or political subdivision of a state that consists of a geographic region with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 U.S. states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes and boroughs, respectively.

Further reading

The following article demonstrates how to more effectively use the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) United States Postal Service ZIP Code Crosswalk Files when working with disparate geographies.

Wilson, Ron and Din, Alexander, 2018. “Understanding and Enhancing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s ZIP Code Crosswalk Files,” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, Volume 20 Number 2, 277 – 294. URL: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/cityscpe/vol20num2/ch16.pdf

Contact information

Questions regarding these crosswalk files can be directed to Alex Din with the subject line HUD-Crosswalks.

Acknowledgement

This dataset is taken from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) office: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/usps_crosswalk.html#codebook

This data collection relates ZIP codes to counties, to standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs), and, in New England, to minor civil divisions (MCDs). The relationships between ZIP codes and other geographical units are based on 1979 boundaries, and changes since that time are not reflected. The Census Bureau used various sources to determine ZIP code-county or ZIP code-MCD relationships. In the cases where the sources were confusing or contradictory as to the geographical boundaries of a ZIP code, multiple ZIP-code records (each representing the territory contained in that ZIP-code area) were included in the data file. As a result, the file tends to overstate the ZIP code-county or ZIP code-MCD crossovers. The file is organized by ZIP code and is a byproduct of data used to administer the 1980 Census. Variables include ZIP codes, post office names, FIPS state and county codes, county or MCD names, and SMSA codes.

A dataset listing Tennessee zip codes by population for 2024.

A dataset listing Illinois zip codes by population for 2024.

Dataset

This dataset was created by Shaswot Joshi

Released under Database: Open Database, Contents: Database Contents

Contents

Explore Demographic Insights and Forecasts for Every Zip Code: Historical, Current, and Future Trends.

1. Zip code boundaries change, in ways small and large - these are not a stable analysis unit. Data you received keyed to zip codes may have used an earlier and very different boundary for your zip codes of interest.
2. Historically, the United States Postal Service has not published zip code boundaries, and instead, boundary datasets are compiled by third party vendors from address data. That means that the boundary data are not authoritative, and any data you have keyed to zip codes may use a different, vendor-specific method for generating boundaries from the data here.
3. Zip codes are designed to optimize mail delivery, not social, environmental, or demographic characteristics. Analysis using zip codes is subject to create issues with the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem that will bias any results because your units of analysis aren't designed for the data being studied.

A dataset listing Delaware zip codes by population for 2024.

Population by U.S. Postal ZIP Code from the Series 14 Regional Growth Forecast

This web map presents five-digit ZIP Code areas used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail more effectively. The first digit of a five-digit ZIP Code divides the United States into 10 large groups of states numbered from 0 in the Northeast to 9 in the far West. Within these areas, each state is divided into an average of 10 smaller geographical areas, identified by the second and third digits. These digits, in conjunction with the first digit, represent a sectional center facility or a mail processing facility area. The fourth and fifth digits identify a post office, station, branch or local delivery area. It provides area, post office name, and population for each ZIP Code area in the United States.The ZIP Code boundaries are from 2024. The population estimates are from Esri Demographics.

A dataset listing Michigan zip codes by population for 2024.