U.S. Census Urbanized Areas represents the Census 2000 Urbanized Areas (UA) and Urban Clusters (UC). A UA consists of contiguous, densely settled census block groups (BGs) and census blocks that meet minimum population density requirements (1000ppsm /500ppsm), along with adjacent densely settled census blocks that together encompass a population of at least 50,000 people. A UC consists of contiguous, densely settled census BGs and census blocks that meet minimum population density requirements, along with adjacent densely settled census blocks that together encompass a population of at least 2,500 people, but fewer than 50,000 people. The dataset covers the 50 States plus the District of Columbia within United States.
U.S. Census Urbanized Areas provides information about the locations, names, and urban codes of urbanized areas primarily for national planning applications.
Largest scale when displaying the data: 1:300,000.
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The shapefile is converted to SDC (Smart Data Compression) format using either ESRI SDC Data Development Kit Professional 2 (DDKP2) or tools in ArcGIS. The SDC data set is then loaded into ArcSDE® to verify and validate the geometry.
After processing, the data set is checked for drawing display and number of records and file sizes compared with source materials.
Attribute and geospatial data
Attribute and geospatial data
An urbanized area (UA) consists of densely settled territory that contains 50,000 or more people. A UA may contain both place and nonplace territory. The U.S. Census Bureau delineates UAs to provide a better separation of urban and rural territory, population, and housing in the vicinity of large places. At least 35,000 people in a UA must live in an area that is not part of a military reservation. For Census 2000, UA delineations constitute a "zero-based" approach that requires no "grandfathering" of UA boundaries from the 1990 census. Because of the more stringent density requirements (and the less restrictive extended place criteria), some territory that was classified as urbanized for the 1990 census has been reclassified as rural. In addition, some areas that were identified as UAs for the 1990 census have been reclassified as urban clusters. The title of a UA may contain up to three incorporated place names, and will include the two-letter U.S. Postal Service abbreviation for each state into which the UA extends. However, if the UA does not contain an incorporated place, the UA title will include the single name of the geographic entity that occurs first from the following list: census designated place, minor civil division, or populated place recognized by the U.S. Geological Survey. Each UA is assigned a five-digit census code in alphabetical sequence on a nationwide basis, interspersed with the codes for urban clusters (UCs), also in alphabetical sequence. For the 1990 census, the U.S. Census Bureau assigned a four-digit UA code based on the MA codes. For Census 2000, a separate flag is included in data tabulation files to differentiate between UAs and UCs. In printed reports, this differentiation is included in the name.
The following steps were performed by ESRI: Downloaded ua99_doo.shp from the Census web site in October 2003. Deleted areas outside Alaska, Hawaii, and the contiguous United States--Puerto Rico, Guam, etc. Made shapes multi-part. Converted Hawaii to North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). Clipped features to the 2004 U.S. States coastline. Added POP2000 attribute by aggregating ESRI block pop points. Removed state abbreviations from NAME attribute (i.e., Riverside, CA became just Riverside). Deleted records that were prisons. Added SQMI attribute and calculated its values. Converted the data set to SDC. Created the projection file (.prj) and spatial indices.
The following steps were performed by ESRI: Added attribute POP00_SQMI and calculated its values. Reduced attribute widths for UA_ID, NAME, LSAD, and LSAD_DESC.
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
ESRI
Unique identification number of the Urban Area feature.
ESRI
Urban Area name of the feature.
ESRI
Legal/Statistical area code of the feature.
ESRI
Urbanized Area.
Department of Commerce, Census Bureau
Urban Cluster.
Department of Commerce, Census Bureau
Legal/Statistical area description of the feature.
ESRI
Legal/Statistical area descriptions of the feature.
Department of Commerce, Census Bureau
The 2000 population of the feature.
ESRI
The 2000 population per square mile of the feature.
ESRI
Number of households for the feature.
ESRI
Number of housing units for the feature.
ESRI
The area in square miles for the feature.
ESRI
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See use constraints.
The SDC file contains the geospatial and attribute data. The SDI file contains the spatial index. The PRJ file contains the coordinate system information (optional). The XML file (*.sdc.xml) contains the metadata describing the data set (optional).
ESRI Data & Maps is available only as part of ESRI® software.
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