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. Congressional Districts are the 435 areas
from which people are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After the apportionment of congressional seats among the States
based on census population counts, each State is responsible for establishing congressional districts for the purpose of electing
representatives. Each congressional district is to be as equal in population to all other congressional districts in a State as
practicable. The 115th Congress is seated from January 2017 to 2019. The TIGER/Line shapefiles for the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, and the Island Areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) each
contain a single record for the non-voting delegate district in these areas. The boundaries of all other congressional districts are
provided to the Census Bureau through the Redistricting Data Program (RDP).
Resources
| Name | Format | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIGERweb/Legislative (MapServer) | JSON | This Rest Service contains the 115th Congressional layer | Open resource |
| TIGERweb/tigerWMS_Current (MapServer) | WMS | This web mapping service contains the layer for 115th Congressional Districts. Since this layer displays at scales of 1:11,999,976 or greater, adjusting the BBox coordinates in the URL is necessary to get the desired area | Open resource |
| Shapefile Zip File | ZIP | tl_2016_us_cd115.zip | Open resource |
| TIGER/Line®Shapefiles | HTML | Should be used for most mapping projects--this is our most comprehensive dataset. Designed for use with GIS (geographic information systems). | Open resource |