LibGuides: U.S. Census Statistics: Census Boundary Files & Maps

GIS Boundary Files

Boundary files from NHGIS (1790-2000)
Not all areas are available for all time periods.
Boundary files from the US Census Bureau
1990 onward.
Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
A dataset that covers every day-to-day change in the size, shape, location, name, organization, and attachment of each U.S. county and state from the creation of the first county in 1634 through 2000.

more... less...

* Viewable, interactive maps on which the historical lines have been plotted against a background of the modern county network * Downloadable shapefiles * Downloadable KMZ files * Downloadable and printable PDF files with the historical boundaries displayed against a background of the modern county network).
2010 TIGER/Line Shapefiles
Shapefiles supporting the 2010 Census Redistricting Data (P. L. 94-171) release. All legal boundaries and names are as of January 1, 2010.

More sources for Census Tract maps

PDF census maps for the US
US Bureau of Census maps in PDF format. These are large PDFs, about 36" x 42"
Address Lookup
Click on "Find Geographies Using.....One Line". Type in your address and click "find"
Retrieve Census Tracts by Address - Batch upload
Click on "Find Geographies Using....Address Batch". Upload a csv file (formatted as per their recommendations).
State of Michigan more census maps
GIS Files for Census Tracts, 1910 to present
NHGIS provides boundary files for a number of census geographic units.
4 min. video: Finding Census Tracts in Policymap
A commercial service which includes some free functionality
4 min video: Address Lookup & Batch Address Lookup
Use the Census website to look up address to learn the census tract.

Census Maps at the MSU Libraries

Paper or fiche maps of census areas such as blocks, block groups, tracts and metropolitan areas are available at the MSU Libraries for the following years:

Up to 1970: Maps are within or next to the related statistics volumes in the MSU Main Library, Census Alcove. Up to 1970 MSU has tract and block maps for the entire USA.
1980: All geographies up to and including tracts for the whole USA in the Census Alcove
- Block maps for the entire USA on microfiche: MSU Gov Docs, 3W C 3.224/5:PHC 80-1-XXX These fiche also contain 1980 block statistics not available in the Census Alcove.
- Lansing-East Lansing SMSA block map on paper [MSU Maps Library]

1990: Tract maps for Michigan only in the Census Alcove
- SE Michigan tract maps [MSU Map Library]
- Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Lenawee county tract and block map [MSU Map Library]
- 1990 Block Maps online (all areas)
- 1990 Tract Maps online (all areas)

2000: Block group and block maps for Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, Kent, Oakland and Wayne counties and tract maps for all MI counties [MSU Map Library]
- 2000 Block Maps online

Maps of congressional districts were often published in separate atlases. Some are in the MSU Census Alcove. Others are located in the MSU Map Library.

The Library of Michigan has a larger collection of Census paper maps of smaller geographic areas for 1980 onward.

Online Census tract Maps

Years	Cities
1940	All cities tracted in 1940
1950	All cities tracted in 1950
1960	Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL SMSA Detroit, MI SMSA (1 of 2), (2 of 2) Flint, MI SMSA Gary, IN SMSA Grand Rapids, MI SMSA Jackson, MI SMSA Kalamazoo, MI SMSA Lancaster, PA Lansing, MI SMSA Muskegon and Muskegon Heights, MI SMSA New Orleans SMSA New York, NY SMSA (1 of 5), (3 of 5), (2, 4 and 5 of 5) Newark, NJ (SMSA) Oklahoma City, OK Omaha, NE Philadelphia, PA SMSA (1 of 3), (2 of 3), (3 of 3) Pittsburgh, PA SMSA (1 of 2), (2 of 2) Saginaw, MI SMSA San Francisco-Oakland SMSA (2 of 3), (3 of 3) Waco, TX Waterloo, IA Wilmington, DE Some maps may not be available in paper in the MSU Libraries.
1970	Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ SMSA Anaheim-Santa Ana-Garden Grove, CA SMSA Ann Arbor, MI SMSA Atlanta, GA SMSA Baltimore, MD SMSA Birmingham, AL SMSA Boston, MA SMSA Buffalo, NY SMSA Charlotte, NC SMSA Chicago, IL SMSA Cleveland, OH SMSA Columbus, OH SMSA Dallas, TX SMSA Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, IA-IL SMSA Denver, CO SMSA Detroit, MI SMSA Duluth-Superior, MN-WI SMSA Flint, MI SMSA Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, FL SMSA Fort Worth, TX SMSA Galveston-Texas City, TX SMSA Harrisburg, PA SMSA Hartford, CT SMSA Honolulu, HI SMSA Houston, TX SMSA Huntsville, AL SMSA Jackson, MI SMSA Jersey City, NJ SMSA Kalamazoo, MI SMSA Kansas City, MO-KS SMSA Las Vegas, NV SMSA Lawrence-Haverhill, MA-NH SMSA Little Rock-North Little Rock, AR SMSA Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA SMSA Louisville, KY-IN SMSA Madison, WI SMSA Memphis, TN-AR SMSA Milwaukee, WI SMSA Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN SMSA Mobile, AL SMSA New Orleans, LA SMSA New York, NY SMSA Newark, NJ SMSA Newport News-Hampton, VA SMSA Norfolk-Portsmouth, VA SMSA Oklahoma, OK SMSA Omaha, NE-IA SMSA Phoenix, AZ SMSA Pittsburgh, PA SMSA Portland, OR-WA SMSA Providence-Pawtucket-Warwick, RI-MA SMSA Richmond, VA SMSA Sacramento, CA SMSA Saginaw, MI SMSA St. Louis, MO-IL SMSA Salt Lake City, UT SMSA San Antonio, TX SMSA San Bernadino-Riverside-Ontario, CA SMSA San Diego, CA SMSA San Francisco-Oakland, CA SMSA San Jose, CA SMSA San Juan, PR SMSA Seattle-Everett, WA SMSA Shreveport, LA SMSA Tacoma, WA SMSA Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL SMSA Toledo, OH-MI SMSA Tucson, AZ SMSA Tulsa, OK SMSA Washington, D.C.-MD-VA SMSA Waterloo, IA West Palm Beach, FL SMSA Wichita, KS SMSA Worcester, MA SMSA York, PA SMSA
1980	Allegan County, Cass County and Midland County, MI Ann Arbor, MI SMSA Battle Creek, MI SMSA Bay City, MI SMSA Grand Rapids, MI Jackson, MI Kalamazoo-Portage MI SMSA Lansing-East Lansing, MI SMSA Muskegon-Norton Shores-Muskegon Heights, MI SMSA Saginaw, MI SMSA Toledo, OH-MI SMSA
1990	All cities
2000	All cities
2010	All cities

Census Maps in PDF

PDF maps are also available on CD-ROM for 1990 and 2000 in the MSU Maps Library. These include maps for larger geographic areas as well as block and tract maps.

PDF Maps (US Census Bureau)
Mainly 1990 onward. Includes maps of blocks, tracts and PUMAs. Many of these maps are extremely large.

Normalizing Census Boundaries across time

Longitudinal Tract Database 1970-2010
Miao Chunyu of Brown University prepared a crosswalk to create equivalent tract boundaries between several censuses from files downloaded from the NHGIS. Files are available in Excel and STATA format. Note that much of the U.S. was not divided into census tracts in 1970, and even in 1980 many less populated areas were not tracted. Consequently many 2010 tracts will have missing values for 1970 and 1980.

MSU Libraries

Research Guides

U.S. Census Statistics: Census Boundary Files & Maps