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2020 Cartographic Boundary File (SHP), 2020 Census Urban Areas for United States, 1:500,000

Metadata Updated: December 14, 2023

The 2020 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.

After each decennial census, the Census Bureau delineates urban areas that represent densely developed territory, encompassing residential, commercial, and other nonresidential urban land uses. In general, this territory consists of areas of high population density and urban land use resulting in a representation of the urban footprint. There are 2,644 Urban Areas (UAs) in this data release with either a minimum population of 5,000 or a housing unit count of 2,000 units. Each urban area is identified by a 5-character numeric census code that may contain leading zeroes.

    This file includes revisions made to the 2020 Census New Orleans, LA Urban Area where the territory originally delineated as the 2020 Census Laplace--Lutcher--Gramercy, LA Urban Area was combined with the 2020 Census New Orleans, LA Urban Area to form the current New Orleans, LA Urban Area.

    This file includes revisions made to the 2020 Census Atlanta, GA Urban Area and Gainesville, GA Urban Area, where some urban territory originally designated to the Gainesville, GA Urban Area was reassigned to the Atlanta, GA Urban Area.

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 2023-10
Metadata Created Date December 14, 2023
Metadata Updated Date December 14, 2023
Reference Date(s) 2023-10 (publication), 2023-10 (creation), 2023-10 (lastUpdate)
Frequency Of Update notPlanned

Metadata Source

Harvested from Cartographic Boundary Files - 2020

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date 2023-10
Metadata Created Date December 14, 2023
Metadata Updated Date December 14, 2023
Reference Date(s) 2023-10 (publication), 2023-10 (creation), 2023-10 (lastUpdate)
Responsible Party U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Customer Engagement Branch (Point of Contact)
Contact Email
Guid cb_2020_us_ua20_corrected_500k.shp.iso.xml
Access Constraints Access_Constraints: None, Use Constraints: The intended display scale for this file is 1:500,000. This file should not be displayed at scales larger than 1:500,000. 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 71.365162
Bbox South Lat -14.548699
Bbox West Long -179.148909
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update notPlanned
Harvest Object Id c9605fd2-cff4-46e5-b734-339072458a04
Harvest Source Id 28012753-516e-46f6-b1e2-819875e754f9
Harvest Source Title Cartographic Boundary Files - 2020
Licence
Lineage
Metadata Language eng; USA
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-179.148909, -14.548699], [179.77847, -14.548699], [179.77847, 71.365162], [-179.148909, 71.365162], [-179.148909, -14.548699]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4269
Spatial Harvester True

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