USGS TIGER

TIGER/Line files are created by the US Census Bureau and cover the entire US. They are often referred simply as TIGER files. For more information see: https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html.

File listing

TIGER/Line files are text files and directory-based data sources. For example, one county folder TGR06059 contains several associated files:

TGR06059.RT1 TGR06059.RT2 TGR06059.RT4 TGR06059.RT5
TGR06059.RT6 TGR06059.RT7 TGR06059.RT8 TGR06059.RTA
TGR06059.RTC TGR06059.RTH TGR06059.RTI TGR06059.RTP
TGR06059.RTR TGR06059.RTS TGR06059.RTT TGR06059.RTZ

Data Access / Connection Method

• TIGER/Line access occurs through through OGR’s TIGER driver.

• CONNECTIONTYPE OGR must be specified.

• The full path to the directory containing the associated files is required in the CONNECTION string.

• The feature type is specified in the DATA parameter

OGRINFO Examples

Using ogrinfo on a TIGER directory to retrieve feature types:

> ogrinfo TGR06059 (NOTE that this is a directory)

ERROR 4: Tiger Driver doesn't support update.
Had to open data source read-only.
INFO: Open of `TGR06059'
using driver `TIGER' successful.
1: CompleteChain (Line String)
2: AltName (None)
3: FeatureIds (None)
4: ZipCodes (None)
5: Landmarks (Point)
6: AreaLandmarks (None)
7: Polygon (None)
8: PolygonCorrections (None)
9: EntityNames (Point)
10: PolygonEconomic (None)
11: IDHistory (None)
12: PolyChainLink (None)
13: PIP (Point)
14: TLIDRange (None)
15: ZeroCellID (None)
16: OverUnder (None)
17: ZipPlus4 (None)

Using ogrinfo to examine the structure of the TIGER feature type CompleteChain:

> ogrinfo TGR06059 CompleteChain -summary

ERROR 4: Tiger Driver doesn't support update.
Had to open data source read-only.
INFO: Open of `TGR06059'
using driver `TIGER' successful.

Layer name: CompleteChain
Geometry: Line String
Feature Count: 123700
Extent: (-118.125898, 33.333992) - (-117.412987, 33.947512)
Layer SRS WKT:
GEOGCS["NAD83",
DATUM["North_American_Datum_1983",
        SPHEROID["GRS 1980",6378137,298.257222101]],
PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],
UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]]
MODULE: String (8.0)
TLID: Integer (10.0)
SIDE1: Integer (1.0)
SOURCE: String (1.0)
FEDIRP: String (2.0)
FENAME: String (30.0)
FETYPE: String (4.0)
FEDIRS: String (2.0)
CFCC: String (3.0)
FRADDL: String (11.0)
TOADDL: String (11.0)
FRADDR: String (11.0)
TOADDR: String (11.0)
FRIADDL: String (1.0)
TOIADDL: String (1.0)
FRIADDR: String (1.0)
TOIADDR: String (1.0)
ZIPL: Integer (5.0)

Mapfile Example:

LAYER
  NAME "my_tiger_layer"
  TYPE LINE
  STATUS DEFAULT
  CONNECTIONTYPE OGR
  CONNECTION "/path/to/data/tiger/TGR06059"
  DATA "CompleteChain"
  CLASS
    STYLE
      COLOR 153 102 0
    END #style
  END #class
END #layer