U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Data Layer: CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
You are invited to read the definitions of terms used in this data standard.
| Name | Congressional District |
| Description |
The data layer consists of digital information input by the Census Bureau depicting the boundaries of the Congressional Districts. This may vary by Congress, as there could be redistricting changes every two years. |
| Source |
The Census Bureau maintains a site with the current (109th) and past
(103rd through 108th) Congressional
District coverages and metadata at
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cd_metadata.html. Coverages are available by state or for the entire country in ARCExport
(E00)
or Shapefile format.
ESRI has a data site at http://www.esri.com/data/download/census2000_tigerline/index.html where TIGER data, including Congressional District data, can be converted to shapefiles and downloaded, either by county or data layer. Only the 104th Congressional District information is available here. |
| Historical Data | Previous versions of the data standard and source information are
available here:
Revision 1
The initial data standard and source information is available here: Congressional District |
| Reference(s) |
Part 270, FW 6, Data Management and Standards, dated September 30, 2002. Documentation on Congressional District data and other Census Bureau TIGER data sets is available at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/. The National Atlas of the United States provides printable maps, boundaries, and a map layer of the congressional district boundaries for the 109th Congress (2005-2006). Descriptive information includes the full name and party affiliation of the congressional representative elected from each district and the congressional district number. This map layer is the only congressional district information that can be viewed online with the National Atlas Map Maker; however, historical congressional district map layers for the 106th (1999-2000), 107th (2001-2002), and 108th (2003-2004) Congresses are also available for download from the National Atlas web site. |
| Use Instructions |
As of the approval date, this data standard will be used whenever Congressional
District spatial data are required for an application. This data standard also needs
to be used in conjunction with the Congressional District Data Element Standard, which can
be viewed at this site. To ensure compliance with the Service Information and Technology Architecture (SITA), Service staff are strongly encouraged to utilize this data layer in existing systems, data sets, databases, and information applications. Where existing systems and data-related items are not in compliance, they should be modified to achieve compatibility and implement this data standard. The Census Bureau site identified in the Source section of this standard provides data for the current and past Congressional Districts in ARCExport (E00), Shapefile, and Arc generate and ungenerate formats with all relevant attributes converted from the native TIGER format. Generally, the most current data will be used, but there may be cases where the historic District boundaries are needed for analytical purposes. For many areas in the country, there may not be yearly changes, in which case any of the data sets can be used. |
| Tools |
The native data format for Congressional District data is TIGER. Since many
geographic information systems (GIS) cannot use TIGER data directly, conversion programs
are needed. Some software programs incorporate an import function for TIGER
data. Arc/Info is a good example. For others, there are separate
translators. The two listed below are just examples; both have been tested and work
well. A TIGER to shapefile (ArcView) or mif (MapInfo) format converter can be tested at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/. This is an inexpensive converter that works well, but only works with TIGER data. The ESRI source site referenced above converts the TIGER data to a shapefile before you download it, but only works on the 104th Congressional District data available at the ESRI site. The Census Bureau data in ARCExport and Shapefile formats can be utilized in many GIS software programs and are much easier to convert than the TIGER data. |
| Phase | Adopted |
| Approval Date | July 13, 1999 |
| Validation Date | January 23, 2006 |
| Data Steward | Deb Southworth Green, National FWS GIS Coordinator, Branch of Data and Systems Services, Division of Information Resources and Technology Management |
Return to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service Data Standards Page.
Visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Home Page.
These pages are maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Information Technology Management. Please feel free to contact Deb Southworth Green with any questions and comments.
Keywords=congressional, districts, state, data, standards, layers
Last Modified