HUD-USPS ZIP Crosswalk Files

One of the many challenges that social science researchers and practitioners face is the difficulty of relating data between census tracts which are re-delineated with each decennial census. While some methods of harmonizing or crosswalking data between census tracts exist, to provide additional avenues for merging these data, PD&amp;R has released the HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk Files. These unique files are derived from the USPS Vacancy Data which are regularly updated by the USPS which makes them uniquely positioned to describe human settlements patterns between census tract delineations. These data use the locations of ZIP+4 centroids, an extremely granular level of geography, the number of addresses of various types (residential, business, other, and total), and do not rely on ancillary data to map where population or households might be located.<br><br>There are twelve types of crosswalk files available for download. The first six crosswalk files are used to allocate ZIP codes to Census Bureau geographies such as census tracts, counties, county subdivisions, Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), CBSA Divisions, and Congressional Districts. The last six are used to allocate from those same Census Bureau geographies to ZIP Codes. It is important to note that the relationship between the two types of crosswalk files is not perfectly inverse. That is to say, the ZIP to Tract crosswalk file cannot be used to allocate data from census tract geographies to ZIP codes. Instead, the Tract to ZIP crosswalk file must be used in that specific scenario.<br><br>In addition to the crosswalk files, this dataset also includes screenshots of HUDs documentation and FAQ pages.<br><br><br>

社会科学研究者与从业者面临的诸多挑战之一，是难以在每十年一次人口普查后重新划定的普查地段（census tract）之间实现数据关联。尽管目前已存在部分可实现普查地段间数据协调与跨匹配的方法，但为提供更多数据合并途径，PD&R 推出了 HUD-USPS 普查地段交叉映射文件（HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk Files）。该套文件源自美国邮政署（United States Postal Service, USPS）定期更新的邮政空置数据（USPS Vacancy Data），因此具备独特优势，可精准刻画普查地段划定边界调整后的人类聚居格局。本数据集采用 ZIP+4（四级邮政编码）质心这一极高粒度的地理单元信息，涵盖各类地址（住宅、商业、其他及总计）的数量，且无需依赖辅助数据即可推算人口或住户的分布位置。<br><br>本次发布的交叉映射文件共包含12种下载类型。其中前6种用于将邮政编码（ZIP Code）映射至美国人口普查局（Census Bureau）地理单元，包括普查地段、县、县分区、核心基于统计区域（Core Based Statistical Areas, CBSAs）、CBSA分区以及国会选区。后6种则用于将上述美国人口普查局地理单元映射至邮政编码。需特别说明的是，两类交叉映射文件的映射关系并非完全互逆。换言之，邮政编码至普查地段的交叉映射文件无法用于将普查地段地理单元的数据映射至邮政编码，此类场景需使用普查地段至邮政编码的交叉映射文件。<br><br>除交叉映射文件外，本数据集还包含HUD官方文档及常见问题（Frequently Asked Questions, FAQ）页面的截图。<br><br><br>