Basic Geographic and Historic Data for Interfacing ICPSR Data Sets, 1620-1983 [United States]

This data collection contains the basic information about all counties in the coterminous United States needed for mapping county-based data. It provides an interface between ICPSR datasets and the mapping programs SAS/GRAPH, SURFACE II, and SYMAP. Cloropleth and isopleth maps can be produced by match-merging this dataset with any other dataset (special facilities exist for ICPSR datasets) and running the merged data against a cartographic program. Isopleth mapping programs, using the latitude and longitude coordinates provided for each county seat, can produce maps of ICPSR data. Cloropleth mapping of county-level data can be accomplished after merging by running the merged dataset through SAS/GRAPH. The variables provide state Federal Information Processing (FIPS) codes, county FIPS codes, county names/county seat names, the month, day, and year in which each county was created, the latitude and longitude of county seats, as well as the ICPSR state and county codes.