U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line Files, 1990, 2000-2002, 2004-2009

The 2005 First Edition TIGER/Line files include files for all counties and statistically equivalent entities in the United States as well as files for Puerto Rico and the Island Areas.

The 2005 First Edition TIGER/Line files are released by county or  statistically equivalent entity based on the current boundaries in effect as of January 1, 2005 as reported to the Census Bureau by April 1, 2005.

The Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas appearing in the 2005 First Edition TIGER/Line files are those defined by the U.S. Office of Management and  Budget (OMB) in December, 2003.

The data for each county (or statistically equivalent entity) is stored in a single  compressed file that, when decompressed, results in up to 19 separate files  representing each of the TIGER/Line record types that exist for that county. Some counties did not require all of the 19 record types and therefore will have less than 19 files. If the types of data contained in record types 4, 6, 7, 8, B and Z are not appropriate for a given county then the files for those record types will NOT be included. New Record Type U does not appear in the 2005 First Edition TIGER/Line files. The Census 2005 First Edition TIGER/Line data dictionary contains a complete list of all the fields in the 20 record types which are listed below.

• Record Type 1 Complete Chain Basic Data Record

• Record Type 2 Complete Chain Shape Coordinates

• Record Type 4 Index to Alternate Feature Identifiers

• Record Type 5 Complete Chain Feature Identifiers

• Record Type 6 Additional Address Range and ZIP Code Data

• Record Type 7 Landmark Features

• Record Type 8 Polygons Linked to Area Landmarks

• Record Type A Polygon Geographic Entity Codes: Current Geography

• Record Type B Polygon Geographic Entity Codes: Corrections

• Record Type C Geographic Entity Names

• Record Type E Polygon Geographic Entity Codes: Economic Census

• Record Type H TIGER/Line ID History

• Record Type I Link Between Complete Chains and Polygons

• Record Type M Feature Spatial Metadata Record

• Record Type P Polygon Internal Point

• Record Type R TIGER/Line ID Record Number Range

• Record Type S Polygon Geographic Entity Codes: Census 2000

• Record Type T TIGER Zero-Cell ID

• Record Type U TIGER/Line ID Overpass/Underpass Identification

• Record Type Z ZIP+4AE Codes

The TIGER/Line data is stored in compressed format in subdirectories by state name. There is one TIGER/Line file (in a compressed format) for each county or county equivalent. The file names consist of TGR + the 2-digit state FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) code + the 3-digit county FIPS code (i.e. TGR01031.ZIP for Coffee County, Alabama.) Each state folder contains individual county files.

The individual county files include one file for each record type included for that county with the following name convention: tgr01031.rt1. The convention follows the order described above with each file having a suffix which includes 'rt' (record type) followed by its designation (in this case record type 1). Each county file also contains its own metadata record.

All documentation files for the TIGER/Line data are stored in a directory named '0docs' which is located in the 'Parent Directory'. This directory appears at the top of the index of state subdirectories for each edition of the TIGER/Line files. The documentation includes a complete list of FIPS state and county codes.