MapTechnica Support

Our data are (is?? are??... are) derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's ZCTA data which is more closely tied to true geographic boundaries than U.S. Po...

Strictly speaking, U.S. Postal Service ZIP Codes are not geographical, but, rather, administrative constructs. They are actually a set of routes carriers ...

All are technically correct. The term, "ZIP Code," was originally trademarked, but that trademark expired in the late '90s (source), so the &q...

I'll let Wikipedia answer that: ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulatin...

To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, ZCTAs are the worst form of geodata, except for all the others. I'm sure if he knew what geodata was, he would agre...

In the vast majority of cases, they are the same (or nearly so). However, unlike ZCTAs, ZIP Codes can cross state and municipal boundaries, and are prone ...

No. There are roughly 42,000 ZIP Codes in use by the USPS. As of the 2010 Census, there were only roughly 32,000 ZCTAs. The USCB chose not to create ZCTAs...

To be clear on one point: ZIP Codes do not cover the whole U.S. There are gaps in unpopulated areas like, for example, the deserts in southern California/...

No, the U.S. Census Bureau does not include in their ZCTA data single-point ZIP Codes like P.O. boxes and tall buildings that have their own ZIP Code. It ma...

We update our boundary data products whenever the U.S. Census Bureau updates their TIGER/Line source data. Typically, this is done once a year in the last...