Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Census Blocks are statistical areas bounded on all sides by visible features, such as streets, roads, streams, and railroad tracks, and/or by nonvisible boundaries such as city, town, township, and county limits, and short line-of-sight extensions of streets and roads. Census blocks are relatively small in area; for example, a block in a city bounded by streets. However, census blocks in remote areas are often large and irregular and may even be many square miles in area. A common misunderstanding is that data users think census blocks are used geographically to build all other census geographic areas, rather all other census geographic areas are updated and then used as the primary constraints, along with roads and water features, to delineate the tabulation blocks. As a result, all 2010 Census blocks nest within every other 2010 Census geographic area, so that Census Bureau statistical data can be tabulated at the block level and aggregated up to the appropriate geographic areas. Census blocks cover all territory in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Blocks are the smallest geographic areas for which the Census Bureau publishes data from the decennial census. A block may consist of one or more faces.
Citation
Title TIGER/Line Shapefile, 2012, state, Montana, Current Block State-based
publication  Date   2012-01-01
Edition 2012
presentationForm  mapDigital
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division
cited responsible party -
organisation Name
Contact information
Linkage for online resource
URL:http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2012/TABBLOCK/tl_2012_30_tabblock.zip
Theme keywords (theme):
State or equivalent entity
Polygon
Block
Census Block
thesaurus name >
Title None
Location keywords:
United States
U.S.
State or Equivalent Entity
Montana
MT
30
thesaurus name >
Title ANSI INCITS 38:2009 (Formerly FIPS 5-2), ANSI INCITS 31:2009 (Formerly FIPS 6-4),ANSI INCITS 454:2009 (Formerly FIPS 8-6), ANSI INCITS 455:2009(Formerly FIPS 9-1), ANSI INCITS 446:2008 (Geographic Names Information System (GNIS))
Theme keywords (theme):
thesaurus name >
Title Feature > Hydrologic Feature
publication  Date   2016-11-14
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Mon Nov 14 14:02:56 UTC 2016
Theme keywords (theme):
thesaurus name >
Title Feature > Marine Feature
publication  Date   2016-11-14
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Mon Nov 14 14:02:56 UTC 2016
Theme keywords (theme):
thesaurus name >
Title Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Corporate Names
publication  Date   2016-11-14
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Mon Nov 14 14:02:56 UTC 2016
Theme keywords (theme):
thesaurus name >
Title Material > Environmental Material
publication  Date   2016-11-14
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Mon Nov 14 14:02:56 UTC 2016
Theme keywords (theme):
thesaurus name >
Title Feature > Environmental Feature
publication  Date   2016-11-14
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Mon Nov 14 14:02:56 UTC 2016
Theme keywords (theme):
thesaurus name >
Title Science Domain > Earth Science
publication  Date   2016-11-14
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Mon Nov 14 14:02:56 UTC 2016
purpose:
In order for others to use the information in the Census MAF/TIGER database in a geographic information system (GIS) or for other geographic applications, the Census Bureau releases to the public extracts of the database in the form of TIGER/Line Shapefiles.
Resource language:  eng; USA
Resource progress code:  completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  NO CHANGES OR UPDATES WILL BE MADE TO THIS VERSION OF THE TIGER/LINE SHAPEFILES. FUTURE RELEASES OF TIGER/LINE SHAPEFILES WILL REFLECT UPDATES MADE TO THE CENSUS MAF/TIGER DATABASE.
Constraints on resource usage:
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
No warranty, expressed or implied is made with regard to the accuracy of these data, and no liability is assumed by the U.S. Government in general or the U.S. Census Bureau in specific as to the spatial or attribute accuracy of the data. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty and no responsibility is assumed by the U.S. government in the use of these files. The boundary information in the TIGER/Line Shapefiles is for statistical data collection and tabulation purposes only; their depiction and designation for statistical purposes do not constitute a determination of jurisdictional authority or rights of ownership or entitlement and they are not legal land descriptions.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
use constraint:  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Use Constraints: The TIGER/Line Shapefile products are not copyrighted however TIGER/Line and Census TIGER are registered trademarks of the U.S. Census Bureau. These products are free to use in a product or publication, however acknowledgement must be given to the U.S. Census Bureau as the source. The boundary information in the TIGER/Line Shapefiles are for statistical data collection and tabulation purposes only; their depiction and designation for statistical purposes does not constitute a determination of jurisdictional authority or rights of ownership or entitlement and they are not legal land descriptions.Coordinates in the TIGER/Line shapefiles have six implied decimal places, but the positional accuracy of these coordinates is not as great as the six decimal places suggest.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: None
Spatial representation type code:  vector
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  -116.050002
eastBoundLongitude  -104.039138
northBoundLatitude  49.00139
southBoundLatitude  44.358209
Temporal Extent
2011-08-01 2012-06-01
point of contact - pointOfContact
organisation Name  U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Geographic Products Branch
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 301-763-1128
Fax 301-763-4710
Address
4600 Silver Hill Road, Stop 7400, Washington, DC, 20233-7400 Country United States
electronic Mail Addressgeo.tiger@census.gov
Back to top:

Vector spatial representation information

Geometric Objects
geometric Object Type  complex
geometric Object Count  132658
Back to top

Grid spatial representation

number of grid dimensions: 2
Grid axis property:
Grid Dimension
Dimension Name:  column
Dimension Size
Grid Dimension
Dimension Name:  row
Dimension Size
transformation parameter availability:  false
Back to top

Coverage description

Type of coverage content
Cell value attribute description:
Band
descriptor Current state Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code
sequence Identifier
name STATEFP
Band
descriptor Current county Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code
sequence Identifier
name COUNTYFP
Band
descriptor 2010 Census state Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) codes
sequence Identifier
name STATEFP10
Band
descriptor 2010 Census county Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code
sequence Identifier
name COUNTYFP10
Band
descriptor 2010 Census census tract code
sequence Identifier
name TRACTCE10
Band
descriptor 2010 Census tabulation block number
sequence Identifier
name BLOCKCE10
Band
descriptor Current census block suffix 1
sequence Identifier
name SUFFIX1CE
Band
descriptor Block identifier; a concatenation of 2010 Census state Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code, 2010 Census county FIPS code, 2010 Census tract code, 2010 Census tabulation block number, and current block suffix 1
sequence Identifier
name GEOID
Band
descriptor Current tabulation block name; a concatenation of 'Block', and the current tabulation block number and suffix 1
sequence Identifier
name NAME
Band
descriptor MAF/TIGER feature class code
sequence Identifier
name MTFCC
Band
descriptor 2010 Census urban/rural indicator
sequence Identifier
name UR10
Band
descriptor 2010 Census urban area code
sequence Identifier
name UACE10
Band
descriptor Current functional status
sequence Identifier
name FUNCSTAT
Band
descriptor Current land area (square meters)
sequence Identifier
name ALAND
Long Wavelength  9,999,999,999,999
Short Wavelength  0
units
Band
descriptor Current water area (square meters)
sequence Identifier
name AWATER
Long Wavelength  9,999,999,999,999
Short Wavelength  0
units
Band
descriptor Current latitude of the internal point
sequence Identifier
name INTPTLAT
Long Wavelength  90.000000
Short Wavelength  -90.000000
units
Band
descriptor Current longitude of the internal point
sequence Identifier
name INTPTLON
Long Wavelength  180.000000
Short Wavelength  -180.000000
units
Back to top

Content information: feature catalog description

Included With Dataset  true
Feature Types  
Back to top

Scope of quality information
scope level  dataset
Resource lineage description
source
source description  Source Contribution: All line segmentsSource Type online
source citation
Title Census MAF/TIGER database
publication  Date
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division
Resource extent
Temporal Extent
2011-08-01 2012-06-01
Completeness Commission
evaluation Method Description  Data completeness of the TIGER/Line Shapefiles reflects the contents of the Census MAF/TIGER database at the time the TIGER/Line Shapefiles were created.
Completeness Omission
evaluation Method Description  Data completeness of the TIGER/Line Shapefiles reflects the contents of the Census MAF/TIGER database at the time the TIGER/Line Shapefiles were created.
ConceptualConsistency
measure Description  The Census Bureau performed automated tests to ensure logical consistency and limits of shapefiles. Segments making up the outer and inner boundaries of a polygon tie end-to-end to completely enclose the area. All polygons are tested for closure. The Census Bureau uses its internally developed geographic update system to enhance and modify spatial and attribute data in the Census MAF/TIGER database. Standard geographic codes, such as FIPS codes for states, counties, municipalities, county subdivisions, places, American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian areas, and congressional districts are used when encoding spatial entities. The Census Bureau performed spatial data tests for logical consistency of the codes during the compilation of the original Census MAF/TIGER database files. Most of the codes for geographic entities except states, counties, urban areas, Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), American Indian Areas (AIAs), and congressional districts were provided to the Census Bureau by the USGS, the agency responsible for maintaining FIPS 55. Feature attribute information has been examined but has not been fully tested for consistency. For the TIGER/Line Shapefiles, the Point and Vector Object Count for the G-polygon SDTS Point and Vector Object Type reflects the number of records in the shapefile attribute table. For multi-polygon features, only one attribute record exists for each multi-polygon rather than one attribute record per individual G-polygon component of the multi-polygon feature. TIGER/Line Shapefile multi-polygons are an exception to the G-polygon object type classification. Therefore, when multi-polygons exist in a shapefile, the object count will be less than the actual number of G-polygons.

Resource distribution information

Distributor
distributor contact - distributor
organisation Name  U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Geographic Products Branch
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 301-763-1128
Fax 301-763-4710
Address
4600 Silver Hill Road, Stop 7400, Washington, DC, 20233-7400 Country United States
electronic Mail Addressgeo.tiger@census.gov
Standard ordering process
fees The online copy of the TIGER/Line files may be accessed without charge.
Ordering Instructions  Ordering Instructions: To obtain more information about ordering TIGER/Line shapefiles visit http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger
Format
Format name TGRSHP (compressed)
Format version
file Decompression Technique  PK-ZIP, version 1.93 A or higher
Digital Transfer Options
Linkage for online resource
URL:http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2012/TABBLOCK/tl_2012_30_tabblock.zip
Metadata data stamp:  2012-06-15
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  annually
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata standard (version FGDC-STD-001-1998) using the 2012-06-20T17:21:00 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform.
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
organisation Name  U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Geographic Products Branch
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 301-763-1128
Fax 301-763-4710
Address
4600 Silver Hill Road, Stop 7400, Washington, DC, 20233-7400 Country United States
electronic Mail Addressgeo.tiger@census.gov
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata language  eng; USA
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
standard version:  ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Metadata record identifier:  831053bd-b14a-4932-8751-8f8d717b92b2

Metadata record format is ISO19139-2 XML (MI_Metadata)