It’s impossible to say which legislative district represents the residents of each ZIP code because sometimes there are several. Through population analysis, we can also determine the probability of a ZIP code’s resident living in any one of several possible districts. These BEFs are the whole 2010 census tabulation block representations of the plans as submitted to the U.S. Census Bureau. Across the United States, our analysis found a 92% accuracy rate for matching constituents to congressional districts with the “ZIP Centroid to District” method. Measuring America's People, Places, and Economy. It’s impossible to say which legislative district represents the residents of each ZIP code because sometimes there are several. Azavea is a certified B Corporation – we aim to advance the state of the art in geospatial technology and apply it for civic, social, and environmental impact. , we offer solutions for matching constituents with their representatives based on our comprehensive database of legislative districts. Subscribe to learn more about the state of the art in technology and data analysis. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS BY ZIP CODE TABULATION AREA (ZCTA) (NATIONAL) - natl_zccd.csv. The abbreviated CD116 provides population and housing characteristics for the total population, population totals for the major race and Hispanic or Latino groups, and population and housing characteristics repeated by the major race and Hispanic or Latino groups.
Using this approach, we can assign a district to each ZIP code based on the district most likely to represent a resident. The tabs below represent the unique congressional sessions as collected by the U.S. Census Bureau through the Redistricting Data Program.
These results vary and some regions perform better than others. ZIP codes can overlap with multiple districts, making any “ZIP to District” service inherently inaccurate. In our work on Cicero, we offer solutions for matching constituents with their representatives based on our comprehensive database of legislative districts.
ZIP codes are useful because they’re widely adopted, commonly understood, and don’t require personal information like street addresses. The fields in these files should be imported as text to preserve leading zeros. Skip to content. ZIP Code Areas. Population items include sex, age, race, Hispanic or Latino origin, household relationship, household type, household size, family type, family size, and group quarters. For some purposes, these accuracy rates might be high enough to justify using just ZIP codes instead of full address matching. For these state chambers, ZIP codes are less likely to be contained entirely within a single district because there are many small districts (e.g. Technically, a ZIP code is a set of postal routes and not a defined geographic region, but the Census Bureau provides a ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area) dataset that can serve as a proxy for ZIP code boundaries. Still, approximately 22.5 million people may be improperly matched to their representative in Congress if only ZIP codes are used. Redistricting Data Program Congressional Districts, Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Decennial Census of Population and Housing, 116th Congressional District Summary File. Sign in Sign up {{ message }} Instantly share code, notes, and snippets. These results vary and some regions perform better than others.
New Hampshire has 204 legislative districts for its House of Representatives). For each census tabulation block, they determine the most frequently occuring ZIP code of contained addresses. Each tab contains information specific to that session's boundary collection along with other relevant products generated in support of any changes. Typically, new products are generated only when changes to congressional districts are reported between sessions. Any changes to congressional plans are submitted to the Census Bureau by non-partisan state liaisons, identified by the governor and legislative leadership of each state at the beginning of each decade's Redistricting Data Program. Pulling from our district boundaries database and US Census Bureau population data, we were able to better quantify the issue. If you’ve dealt with ZIP to District inaccuracies in the past, we’re interested to hear how you handled them.