USE geoid TO JOIN DATA DOWNLOADED FROM DATA.CENSUS.GOVThe TIGER/Line Shapefiles are extracts of selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census Bureau's Master Address File (MAF)/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) System (MTS).The TIGER/Line Shapefiles contain a standard geographic identifier (GEOID) for each entity that links to the GEOID in the data from censuses and surveys. The TIGER/Line Shapefiles do not include demographic data from surveys and censuses (e.g., Decennial Census, Economic Census, American Community Survey, and the Population Estimates Program). Other, non-census, data often have this standard geographic identifier as well. Data from many of the Census Bureau’s surveys and censuses, including the geographic codes needed to join to the TIGER/Line Shapefiles, are available at the Census Bureau’s public data dissemination website (https://data.census.gov/).Census Tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or statistically equivalent entity that can be updated by local participants prior to each decennial census as part of the Census Bureau’s Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP). The Census Bureau delineates census tracts in situations where no local participant responded or where state, local, or tribal governments declined to participate. The primary purpose of census tracts is to provide a stable set of geographic units for the presentation of statistical data.Census tracts generally have a population size between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. A census tract usually covers a contiguous area; however, the spatial size of census tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement. Census tract boundaries are delineated with the intention of being maintained over a long time so that statistical comparisons can be made from census to census. Census tracts occasionally are split due to population growth or merged as a result of substantial population decline.Census tract boundaries generally follow visible and identifiable features. They may follow nonvisible legal boundaries, such as minor civil division (MCD) or incorporated place boundaries in some states and situations, to allow for census tract-to-governmental unit relationships where the governmental boundaries tend to remain unchanged between censuses. State and county boundaries always are census tract boundaries in the standard census geographic hierarchy. Tribal census tracts are a unique geographic entity defined within federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands and can cross state and county boundaries. The tribal census tracts may be completely different from the standard county-based census tracts defined for the same area. (see “Tribal Census Tract”).Downloaded from https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2022/TRACT/ on June 22, 2023