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Within the next several weeks, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau will release the Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line files, designed to support the needs of state and local redistricting officials. From the GIS perspective, TIGER/Line is one of the most important products generated by the Census Bureau. The files contain geographic data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These files will allow state and local legislatures to begin preparation for the analysis of the Census 2000 redistricting data scheduled for release no later than April 1, 2001. The TIGER/Line files are extracts of selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census Bureau’s TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing ) database. They are the first release of the Census 2000 tabulation areas, including the census tract and block numbers that are the foundation of the redistricting process. TIGER, a digital database, supports mapping functions. TIGER/Line files were used in redistricting in 1991. These files contain digital database of geographic features for the entire United States - features such as streets, highways, railroads, rivers, political boundaries, census statistical boundaries, and more. The database contains information about these features such as their location in latitude and longitude, the name, the type of feature, address ranges for most streets the geographic relationship to other features, and other related information. The Census Bureau will be providing access to maps and data through the Internet. Localities will want to work with their planning departments and local planning commissions to use TIGER. Information about TIGER can be found on the Bureau’s website at (www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html). Note: TIGER/Line files DO NOT contain Census 2000 demographic data, boundary information for ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) or updated Census 2000-based address ranges.
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