The 1990 Census TIGER/Line files are, in total, an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the Census Bureau's TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Preferencing) database. The Census Bureau released these files to provide data users with the final 1990 Census boundaries (including voting districts) and to support the 1990 Census Data Products Program. The 1990 Census TIGER/Line files provide digital data for all 1990 Census map features and boundaries, the associated 1990 Census final tabulation geographic area codes (such as 1990 Census block numbers), and the codes for the January 1, 1990, legal and statistical areas on both sides of each line segment of every mapped feature. This version also contains the final voting district codes and the 1990 Census designated place codes.
Be sure to look over the documentation for the TIGER/Line files.
The dynamic map below enables you to zoom into a particular county and download the TIGER/Line files for that county. Please note that this function only includes the states; it does not include Guam and other island areas.
You can also choose to browse alphabetical lists of states and counties. This is especially useful for those geographic regions hard to pinpoint on a map (like Guam), and for downloading files for an entire state.
The 1990 Census TIGER/Line file contains basic information for 1990 Census geographic area codes, basic map features and their names, and address ranges in the form of 12 "Record Types." The Record Types (for more information, see Chapter V in the codebook) are as follows:
1. Basic Data Records (Individual Feature Segment Records)
2. Shape Coordinate Points (Feature Shape Records)
3. Additional Decennial Census Geographic Area Codes
4. Index to Alternate Feature Names
5. Feature Name List
6. Additional Address Range and ZIP Code(2) Information
7. Landmark Features
8. Area Landmarks
A. Additional Polygon Geographic Area Codes
I. Area Boundaries
P. Polygon Location
R. Record Number Range
Each segment record contains the associated decennial census and, when appropriate, the FIPS(1) geographic area codes, as well as the lattitude/longitude coordinates and names for all line segments and point features.
There is one TIGER/Line file (in a compressed format) for each county or county equivalent. The file names consist of TGR + the 2-digit state FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) code + the 3-digit county FIPS code (i.e. TGR01031.ZIP for Coffee County, Alabama.) Each state folder contains individual county files.
The individual county files include one file for each record type included for that county with the following name convention: tgr01031.rt1. The convention follows the order described above with each file having a suffix which includes 'rt' (record type) followed by its designation (in this case record type 1).
1990 | 2000 | 2000 Urban Area | 2002 | 2004 1st Ed. | 2004 2nd Ed. | 2005 1st Ed. | 2006 2nd Ed.