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TIGER/Line Shapefile, 2020, Nation, U.S., Metropolitan Divisions

Published by U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Spatial Data Collection and Products Branch | U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: April 13, 2026 | Last Modified: 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
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. Metropolitan Divisions subdivide a Metropolitan Statistical Area containing a single core urban area that has a population of at least 2.5 million to form smaller groupings of counties or equivalent entities. Not all Metropolitan Statistical Areas with urban areas of this size will contain Metropolitan Divisions. Metropolitan Division are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of one or more main counties or equivalent entities that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main county or counties through commuting ties. Because Metropolitan Divisions represent subdivisions of larger Metropolitan Statistical Areas, it is not appropriate to rank or compare Metropolitan Divisions with Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas. The Metropolitan Divisions boundaries are those defined by OMB based on the 2010 Census, published in 2013, and updated in 2017.

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Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Spatial Data Collection and Products Branch",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:geo.geography@census.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description 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. Metropolitan Divisions subdivide a Metropolitan Statistical Area containing a single core urban area that has a population of at least 2.5 million to form smaller groupings of counties or equivalent entities. Not all Metropolitan Statistical Areas with urban areas of this size will contain Metropolitan Divisions. Metropolitan Division are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of one or more main counties or equivalent entities that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main county or counties through commuting ties. Because Metropolitan Divisions represent subdivisions of larger Metropolitan Statistical Areas, it is not appropriate to rank or compare Metropolitan Divisions with Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas. The Metropolitan Divisions boundaries are those defined by OMB based on the 2010 Census, published in 2013, and updated in 2017.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "tl_2020_us_metdiv.zip",
    "format": "ZIP",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "The TIGER/Line Shapefiles are the fully supported, core geographic product from the U.S. Census Bureau. They are extracts 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.",
    "downloadURL": "https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2020/METDIV/tl_2020_us_metdiv.zip",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "tl_2020_us_metdiv.shp.ea.iso.xml",
    "format": "XML",
    "mediaType": "application/xml",
    "description": "Entity and attribute file",
    "downloadURL": "https://meta.geo.census.gov/data/existing/decennial/GEO/GPMB/TIGERline/Archived_19110/tl_2020_us_metdiv.shp.ea.iso.xml",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "TIGERweb/tigerWMS_Current (MapServer)",
    "accessURL": "https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/services/TIGERweb/tigerWMS_Current/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Web Map Service interface standard (WMS) provides a simple HTTP interface for requesting geo-registered map images from our geospatial database. The response to the request is one or more geo-registered map images that can be displayed in a browser or WMS client application. By gaining access to our data through our WMS, users can produce maps containing TIGERweb layers combined with layers from other servers.
                        ",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "TIGERweb/CBSA (MapServer)",
    "accessURL": "https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/CBSA/MapServer",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "The GeoServices REST Specification provides a way for Web clients to communicate with geographic information system (GIS) servers through Representational State Transfer (REST) technology.
                        ",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  }
]
identifier https://meta.geo.census.gov/data/existing/decennial/GEO/GPMB/TIGERline/Archived_19115/tl_2020_us_metdiv.shp.iso.xml
issued 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "Nation",
  "Polygon",
  "Metropolitan Division",
  "United States",
  "U.S."
]
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Spatial Data Collection and Products Branch",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 179.859681,-14.601813,-179.231086,71.439786
temporal 2019-06-01T00:00:00+00:00/2020-05-01T00:00:00+00:00
title TIGER/Line Shapefile, 2020, Nation, U.S., Metropolitan Divisions

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