If the address is on the same street as a ZIP code boundary on the map, be sure to search for the full street address to determine the ZIP code instead of relying on the map. Very rural areas aren't labeled as belonging to a ZIP code such as much of Nevada and Utah where there are few, if any, addresses to deliver mail. You can easily notice some of the boundary issues when viewing our maps. They provide a very close approximation of the area covered by a ZIP code. The Census Bureau and many other commercial services will try to interpolate the data to create polygons shapes using straight lines to represent the approximate area covered by a ZIP code, but none of these maps are official or entirely accurate. The main issue is discussed above: there simply isn't always a clear geographic boundary for a ZIP code. In areas without a regular postal route or no mail delivery, ZIP codes may not be defined or have unclear boundaries. When ZIP codes appear to be geographically grouped, a clear shape cannot always be drawn around the ZIP code because ZIP codes are only assigned to a point of delivery and not the spaces between delivery points.
However, some ZIP codes have nothing to do with geogaphic areas. In most cases, addresses in close proximity to each other are grouped in the same ZIP code which gives the appearance that ZIP codes are defined by a clear geographic boundary. Some ZIP codes will span multiple states in order to make mail routing and delivery more efficient. They are intended to group mail to allow the USPS to deliver mail more efficiently. It's easy to follow the gradient across each of the zones even though there are a few exceptions such as the southwest tip of Georgia which uses 39XXX like central Mississippi.ĭespite the fact that ZIP codes seem to be geographic in nature, that wasn't their intended purpose. In the map, 0 is closer to white and 9 is much more vivid. As you can see from the map of the first 3 digits of zip codesthe digits after the first are also generally assigned from east to west. The sec centers are not open to the public and usually do most sorting overnight. The first 3 digits of a ZIP code determine the central mail processing facility, also called sectional center facility or "sec center", that is used to process and sort mail.Īll mail with the same first 3 digits is first delivered to the same sec center where it is sorted according to the last 2 digits and distributed to local post offices. The map of the first digit of zip codes above shows they are assigned in order from the north east to the west coast. The additional 4 digits help USPS more precisely group mail for delivery. Already have an account?ZIP codes near me are shown on the map above.
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Original zip code dataset from Geocommons.
Code Revisions 11 Stars 29 Forks Embed What would you like to do? Embed Embed this gist in your website. Instantly share code, notes, and snippets. Unfortunately I don't know where any updated data is now. Hey everyone - sorry - I never saw comments on this gist until just now.
Hi jefffriesenthe link for the data does not work now! Can you update it if you know where the data is now?īest, priyakhokher. Can anybody help me? I need to get the zipcodes map, unfortunately the geocommons link is not available anymore I've been looking for that map for almost 3 weeks jefffriesen. I'm still having trouble scaling them properly using python Vincent, but I think it has something to do with the projections that I am using. RussRezek and roesler-stan I just spent several hours doing this, because I couldn't find any current open data online. I was actually looking for the same thing as roesler-stan. I tried topojson Rockin' gist jefffriesen.
Do you have any tips for how to create a. Hi Jeffriesen, Thank you so much for the helpful code.