2023 Cartographic Boundary File (SHP), Metropolitan Division for United States, 1:20,000,000

Description

The 2023 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. 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 Divisions 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 generalized boundaries in this file are based on those defined by OMB based on the 2020 Census and published in 2023.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
33 General description of the cartographic boundary files and their appropriate use. https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/description.pdf
55 Entity and attribute file https://meta.geo.census.gov/data/existing/decennial/GEO/CPMB/boundary/2023/19110/shp/cb_2023_us_metdiv_20m.shp.ea.iso.xml
33 The file naming convention for the cartographic boundary files. https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/2023_file_name_def.pdf
57 The cartographic boundary files are simplified representations of selected geographic areas specifically designed for small scale thematic mapping. These files contain simplified extracts of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) database. https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/shp/cb_2023_us_metdiv_20m.zip

Tags

  • shp
  • generalized
  • us
  • cartographic boundary
  • 2023
  • united states of america (the)

Topics

Categories