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Deep Dive into Address Geocode – US Information Components

Our DOTS Address Geocode – US service provides geocoding information, such as the latitude and longitude location of a US address, along with demographic information such as the census tract, block and other metadata. This extra information and metadata is important and useful, so let’s take a deeper look at what some of these data points mean.

Level: A code indicating the resolution level at which the address matched. The codes are:

  • S – Street Level Property Match
  • P – ZIP plus four match
  • R – ZIP plus three-match
  • T – ZIP plus two match
  • N – ZIP plus one match
  • Z – ZIP level match (ZIP plus zero)
  • C – City/state match

StateFIPS: Federal Information Processing Standard code. FIPS codes are numbers that uniquely identify geographic areas. The number of digits in FIPS codes vary depending on the level of geography. State-level FIPS codes have two digits.

CountyFIPS: Used to uniquely identify counties across the US. County-level FIPS codes have five digits, of which the first two are the StateFIPS code.

CensusTract: The census tract of the given address. A census tract is a statistical subdivision of a county. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county. They are uniquely numbered in each county with a numeric code. The CensusTract will be a 6-digit decimal number.

CensusBlock: A block is the smallest geographic unit used by the US Census. Census blocks are grouped into block groups, which are grouped into census tracts. The CensusBlock will be a 4-digit number.

CensusGeoID: GeoIDs are numeric codes that uniquely identify all administrative/legal and statistical geographic areas for which the Census Bureau tabulates data. The value will be a 15-digit number comprised of the StateFIPS + CountyFIPS + CensusTract + CensusBlock.

ClassFP: A code that defines the current class of the geographic location. See a more detailed description of the current list of ClassFP codes below.

CongressCode: The congressional district number.

SLDUST: Current state legislative district upper (Senate) chamber code.

SLDLST: Current state legislative district lower (House) chamber code

PlaceName: The name of the place that the coordinates are associated with. Most commonly this is the name of a municipality, city, town, village, or community. Some addresses will have an alternate PlaceName that is different from the input. For example: Ventura, CA can be identified as San Buenaventura, CA.

IsUnincorporated: Indicates if the coordinates are for an unincorporated area. This only appears for street-level property matches (S).

  1. Indicates that the coordinates fall within the boundaries of a known unincorporated area.
  2. Indicates that the coordinates fall outside of the boundaries of a known area.

TimeZone_UTC: The time zone in UTC offset format.

ClassFP CodeClass Code DescriptionAssociated Geographic Entity
C1An active incorporated place that does not serve as a county subdivision equivalentEconomic Census Place, Incorporated Place
C2An active incorporated place that is legally coextensive with a county subdivision but
treated as independent of any county subdivision
County Subdivision, Economic Census Place, Incorporated Place
C3Consolidated CityConsolidated City
C4Alternate official common name for an incorporated placeLocality Point
C5An active incorporated place that is independent of any county subdivision and serves as a county subdivision equivalentCounty Subdivision, Economic Census Place, Incorporated Place
C6An active incorporated place that partially is independent of any county subdivision and serves as a county subdivision equivalent, or partially coextensive with a county subdivision but treated as independent of any county subdivisionIncorporated Place
C7An incorporated place that is independent of any countyCounty or Equivalent Feature, County Subdivision, Economic Census Place,
Incorporated Place
C8The balance of a consolidated city excluding the separately incorporated place(s) within that consolidated governmentEconomic Census Place, Incorporated Place
C9An inactive or nonfunctioning incorporated placeEconomic Census Place, Incorporated Place
M1A military or other defense installation that is not entirely within a census designated placeLocality Point, Military Installation
M2A military or other defense installation entirely within a placeCensus Designated Place, Economic Census Place, Military Installation
U1A census designated place with an official federally recognized nameCensus Designated Place, Economic Census Place
U2A census designated place without an official federally recognized nameCensus Designated Place, Economic Census Place