ACS Data Users Group

In last night's ACS 5-year estimates release, it looks like the geography files are in a new format. Instead of csv/txt pairs as they were in years past, they're in xls format. xls is a lot harder to work with in some systems, and often trips things up with leading zeros, and similar issues. Anyone know if the old format is available anywhere for the new files?

Also, the XLS files don't appear to cover all the geographies. For instance I don't see ZCTAs.

Good morning,

ZCTAs are included in the included in the US.xls file within the 2016_ACS_Geography_Files.zip at www2.census.gov/.../

right.. and ZCTA data are only in the US files as well, as I recall.

That is correct, because it is zcta unsplit by state or county.

No, only ZCTAs up to "18651" are there. The rest seem to be truncated.

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.

ah.. I guess it would be if you aren't using the summary files. I use the summary files so it isn't a waste for me. :) Do you need them for every state?

I'm using the summary files, but the ones for the whole country (www2.census.gov/.../). It's the ones in that folder that aren't right.

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.

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?

Looks like they put up a new geography zip file for the complete sf, with the previous format: www2.census.gov/.../

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.

Yep, me too.

That is, using the 5_year_entire_sf files.

Yes, and not only that, they now include only a few fields (name, logrecno, a couple others) & are not the full geo files that have all those other useful ID fields.