Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

2016 Cartographic Boundary File, Current County and Equivalent for United States, 1:5,000,000

Metadata Updated: January 13, 2021

The 2016 cartographic boundary shapefiles are simplified representations of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). These boundary files are specifically designed for small-scale thematic mapping. When possible, generalization is performed with the intent to maintain the hierarchical relationships among geographies and to maintain the alignment of geographies within a file set for a given year. Geographic areas may not align with the same areas from another year. Some geographies are available as nation-based files while others are available only as state-based files. The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and for the unorganized area, census areas. The latter are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau. In four states (Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia), there are one or more incorporated places that are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of their states. These incorporated places are known as independent cities and are treated as equivalent entities for purposes of data presentation. The District of Columbia and Guam have no primary divisions, and each area is considered an equivalent entity for purposes of data presentation. The Census Bureau treats the following entities as equivalents of counties for purposes of data presentation: Municipios in Puerto Rico, Districts and Islands in American Samoa, Municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The entire area of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas is covered by counties or equivalent entities. The generalized boundaries for counties and equivalent entities are based on those as of January 1, 2016, primarily as reported through the Census Bureau's Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Date 2017-03
Metadata Created Date January 13, 2021
Metadata Updated Date January 13, 2021
Reference Date(s) 2017-03 (publication)
Frequency Of Update notPlanned

Metadata Source

Harvested from 2017_county_5

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date 2017-03
Metadata Created Date January 13, 2021
Metadata Updated Date January 13, 2021
Reference Date(s) 2017-03 (publication)
Responsible Party Unknown
Contact Email
Guid cb_2016_us_county_5m.shp.iso.xml
Access Constraints Access Constraints: None, Use Constraints:The intended display scale for this file is 1:5,000,000. This file should not be displayed at scales larger than 1:5,000,000. These products are free to use in a product or publication, however acknowledgement must be given to the U.S. Census Bureau as the source. The boundary information is for visual display at appropriate small scales only. Cartographic boundary files should not be used for geographic analysis including area or perimeter calculation. Files should not be used for geocoding addresses. Files should not be used for determining precise geographic area relationships.
Bbox East Long 179.77847
Bbox North Lat 71.352561
Bbox South Lat -14.552549
Bbox West Long -179.14734
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update notPlanned
Harvest Object Id 4ee99241-af25-4004-b6de-26e397106991
Harvest Source Id 2fbb3107-ae7a-4f8e-bd35-0dd667b610e1
Harvest Source Title 2017_county_5
Licence
Metadata Language eng
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-179.14734, -14.552549], [179.77847, -14.552549], [179.77847, 71.352561], [-179.14734, 71.352561], [-179.14734, -14.552549]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True
Temporal Extent Begin 2017-03
Temporal Extent End 2017-03

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.