Cartographic Boundary Files
| County Subdivisions Cartographic Boundary Files Descriptions and Metadata Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata
Boundary File Titles | 2000 County Subdivisions
| 1990 County Subdivisions
| 2000 Subbarrios (Puerto Rico Only)
Geographic Area Description Census County Division | Census Subarea | Minor Civil Division | Unorganized Territory | Barrio and Barrio-Pueblo | Subbarrio General Description County subdivisions are the primary divisions of counties and statistically equivalent entities for the reporting of decennial census data. They include census county divisions, census subareas, minor civil divisions (including barrios and barrio-pueblos in Puerto Rico), and unorganized territories. Each county subdivision is assigned a five-digit Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code in alphabetical order within each state. Census County Division Census county divisions (CCDs) are county subdivisions that were delineated by the U.S. Census Bureau, in cooperation with state and local officials for purposes of presenting statistical data. CCDs have been established in 21 states where there are no legally established minor civil divisions (MCDs), where the MCDs do not have governmental or administrative purposes, where the boundaries of the MCDs change frequently, and/or where the MCDs generally are not known to the public. CCDs have no legal functions and are not governmental units. The boundaries of CCDs usually are delineated to follow visible features, and coincide with census tracts where applicable. (In rare instances, two CCDs may constitute a single census tract.) The name of each CCD is based on a place, county, or well-known local name that identifies its location. CCDs have been established in the following 21 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata Census Subarea Census subareas are statistical subdivisions of boroughs, census areas, city and boroughs, and the municipality (entities that are statistically equivalent to counties) in Alaska. Census subareas are delineated cooperatively by the state of Alaska and the U.S. Census Bureau. They were first used for data presentation purposes as part of the 1980 census. Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata Minor Civil Division Minor civil divisions (MCDs) are the primary governmental or administrative divisions of a county or county equivalent in many states. MCDs represent many different kinds of legal entities with a wide variety of governmental and/or administrative functions. MCDs are variously designated as American Indian reservations, assessment districts, boroughs, charter townships, election districts, election precincts, gores, grants, locations, magisterial districts, parish governing authority districts, plantations, precincts, purchases, road districts, supervisor's districts, towns, and townships. In some states, all or some incorporated places are not located in any MCD (independent places) and thus serve as MCDs in their own right. In other states, incorporated places are part of the MCDs in which they are located (dependent places), or the pattern is mixed- some incorporated places are independent of MCDs and others are included within one or more MCDs. Independent cities, which are statistically equivalent to a county, also are treated as a separate MCD equivalent in states containing MCDs. In Maine and New York, there are American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands that serve as MCD equivalents; a separate MCD is created in each case where the American Indian area crosses a county boundary. The U.S. Census Bureau recognizes MCDs in the following 28 states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia has no primary divisions, and the city of Washington is considered equivalent to an MCD for statistical purposes. Arlington County, VA, also has no MCDs and the entire county is designated as an MCD with the name Arlington. The MCDs in 12 states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin) also serve as general-purpose local governments that generally can perform the same governmental functions as incorporated places. The U.S. Census Bureau presents data for these MCDs in all data products in which it provides data for places. Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata Unorganized Territory Unorganized territories occur in 10 minor civil division (MCD) states (Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Dakota) where portions of counties are not included in any legally established MCD or independent incorporated place. The U.S. Census Bureau recognizes such separate pieces of territory as one or more separate county subdivisions for statistical purposes. It assigns each unorganized territory a descriptive name, followed by the designation "unorganized territory." Unorganized territories were first used for statistical purposes in conjunction with the 1960 census. Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata Barrio and Barrio-Pueblo In Puerto Rico, the U.S. Census Bureau recognizes barrios and barrio-pueblos as the primary legal divisions of municipios (census county equivalents). One barrio in each municipio (except Florida, Ponce, and San Juan) is identified as the barrio-pueblo, the area that represented the seat of the government at the time Puerto Rico formalized the municipio and barrio boundaries in the late 1940's. These entities are similar to the minor civil divisions (MCDs) used for reporting decennial census data in 28 states of the United States. Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata Subbarrio Subbarrios in 23 municipios (census county equivalents) in Puerto Rico are the primary legal subdivisions of the barrios-pueblo and some barrios (census MCD equivalents). The U.S. Census Bureau presents the same types of Census 2000 data for these "sub-MCDs" as it does for the barrios and barrios-pueblo. (There is no geographic entity in the United States equivalent to the subbarrio.) Each barrio, barrio-pueblo, and subbarrio is assigned a five-digit Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code in alphabetical order within Puerto Rico. Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata Metadata 2000 County Subs | 1990 County Subs | 2000 Subbarrios
Title | 2000 County Subdivisions
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Location | http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cs2000.html
Geography | Each State, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, N. Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
Vintage | January 1, 2000
Formats | ARC/INFO Export (.e00), Arcview Shapefile, and ARC/INFO Ungenerate (ASCII)
Projection | Geographic (Lat/Lon)
Datum | NAD83
Distributor | Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Originator | Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
For further information on the Cartographic Boundary Files click HERE.
Title | 1990 County Subdivisions
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Location | http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cs1990.html
Geography | Each State, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, N. Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
Vintage | January 1, 1990
Formats | ARC/INFO Export (.e00), Arcview Shapefile, and ARC/INFO Ungenerate (ASCII)
Projection | Geographic (Lat/Lon)
Datum | NAD27
Distributor | Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Originator | Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
For further information on the Cartographic Boundary Files click HERE.
Title | 2000 Subbarrios (Puerto Rico only)
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Location | http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/sb2000.html
Geography | Puerto Rico
Vintage | January 1, 2000
Formats | ARC/INFO Export (.e00), Arcview Shapefile, and ARC/INFO Ungenerate (ASCII)
Projection | Geographic (Lat/Lon)
Datum | NAD83
Distributor | Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
Originator | Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Geography Division
For further information on the Cartographic Boundary Files click HERE.
Return to Top | Geographic Area Descriptions | Metadata

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division,
Cartographic Operations Branch
Created: July 18, 2001
Last Revised: December 07, 2001 at 03:31:18 PM
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