Geography file change?

The Geography TXT files are in the zipped summary files. available on the FTP
www2.census.gov/.../

Great find. But that'll be a lot of wasted downloads just for those small files.

Hi Bernie,

We are checking with our Summary File experts to see why the available files are in a different format this year and if the old format is available. I will be in touch as soon as I have a response.

Yep, me too.

That is, using the 5_year_entire_sf files.

Is it too much to ask for y'all to post a zip with just the geography files so we don't have to download all 10GB again?

I've zipped up the geos & it's available here: mcdc.missouri.edu/.../2016-5_geos.zip

Does that include ZCTAs and CBSAs?

I didn't check. It's the geo TXT and CSV files from the summary files by state.

It should have everything. Thanks Mr. Rice!

wait a minute, you're right. ZCTAs are summary level 860, no? I don't see any in the CSV files

they're in g20165us.csv

you beat me to it! Forgot that ZCTAs aren't state-based. I should have remembered, since every year I have to run a script to add state FIPS codes to ZCTAs in my DB.

By the way, here's a SQL script for adding state FIPS codes to ZCTAs in your database. Adjust the DB, table, and/or column names as needed. mcdc.missouri.edu/.../add_states_for_zctas.sql

Any update on Census providing the geography header files in the same format as previous years?

Bernie, this is correct. The .xlsx, .csv, and .txt files are now available at www2.census.gov/.../. Thank you for sharing with the group.

We received previous requests to improve the format of these geography files, but based on several concerns we have also made the .csv and .txt file formats available again this year to meet the needs of our data users. Thanks to all for sharing your concerns and for your participation in the ACS Online Community.

Bernie, this is correct. The .xlsx, .csv, and .txt files are now available at www2.census.gov/.../. Thank you for sharing with the group.

We received previous requests to improve the format of these geography files, but based on several concerns we have also made the .csv and .txt file formats available again this year to meet the needs of our data users. Thanks to all for sharing your concerns and for your participation in the ACS Online Community.