Hello,
I am glad to have landed here. Speaking in the context of state or county level.
What is the comprehensive definitive answer to "Why dont my shapefile tracts match other shapefile tracts?" Repeat the question for block group shapefiles. I have retrieved the GIS files from The state or the Tiger/Shapefile page of census.gov.
Who are the authoritative sources to tract and or blockgroup shapefiles? Tiger shapefiles vs Other shapefiles, isnt there one location I can get the GIS files?
Is there development on the geographies (tracts, block groups) by the census after release?
Thank you so much.
As Mara said lots of reasons they might not match but you have the definitive National source. A county or any other entity storing shapefiles might keep them in a different projection, might simplify them or clip them to water bodies to make them look better or load faster in some context or might just be outdated.