4 ms·

Ask HN: list of United States regions, state, county, city, zip list

7 points by hhimanshu 15y ago

Where can I find the information about regions, state, county, city, zip for United states, I need this for building a geography dimension. I tried looking up various places but could not find the complete information, please help

br0ke 15y ago
CivicSpace released a CSV db of that a while back. http://www.boutell.com/zipcodes/ http://www.boutell.com/zipcodes/
vrikhter 15y ago
Have you tried looking at factual.com?
akira2501 15y ago
I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish, but the USPS TIGER database can (sometimes) be useful in this area: http://zip4.usps.com/ncsc/addressmgmt/tiger.htm http://zip4.usps.com/ncsc/addressmgmt/tiger.htm
- alexgandy 15y ago
  Here's a direct link to a CSV of the 2000 Census Fips Region/Zip code, which I believe is taken from the USPS TIGER DB: http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zips.txt http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zips.txt
  - hhimanshu 15y ago
    This is awesome, it has loads of data, I can use it all, thank you
  - hhimanshu 15y ago
    All I need is a mapping from county to cities, which is missing in this data too
- hhimanshu 15y ago
  this doesn't seem to have any link that gives this result
pauldi 15y ago
Have you tried geonames? I've not specifically used it for the US but that kind of information is in there for other countries. Only drawback of using geonames is that it can be a bit of effort getting what you want out of their feed. This seems to suggest the data you're after is in there: http://www.geonames.org/postal-codes/postal-codes-us.html http://www.geonames.org/postal-codes/postal-codes-us.html
- gyardley 15y ago
  Yep - with the possible exception of exact ZIP boundaries, it should all be on the download server: http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/ http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/ Grab the US.zip file and the English-language feature codes, filter down the data to the stuff you're interested in, and you're good to go.
chaithsc 15y ago
look up melissa data at http://www.melissadata.com/products/zip-data.htm http://www.melissadata.com/products/zip-data.htm
mjs00 15y ago
For $40 these guys have something that also includes area code, time zone and is recent data & quick download, if that matters for your project: http://zipcodedownload.com/Products/Product/Z5Commercial/Standard/Overview http://zipcodedownload.com/Products/Product/Z5Commercial/Sta... Regions for states is not something well defined, at least that I've found, as the definition varies depending on purpose (commerce, agriculture, political, ...). If you find something good, I'd love to hear about it.
- hhimanshu 15y ago
  for region to states, I found this - http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0770177.html http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0770177.html Let me know if that is what you were looking for
  - mjs00 15y ago
    Hi hhimanshu - I totally mis-understood what you meant - if you were looking to group states into national regions, your link looks pretty good. I was thinking of regions in terms of grouping counties into logical/meaningful state regions. I do that thus far for CA and NY where in each I have about 10 regions.
eknuth 15y ago
If you aren't looking for an API solution, you might want to check this out: http://zips.sourceforge.net/ http://zips.sourceforge.net/ It isn't the most recent data, but it ought to get you started.

7 points by hhimanshu 15y ago

br0ke 15y ago

CivicSpace released a CSV db of that a while back. http://www.boutell.com/zipcodes/ http://www.boutell.com/zipcodes/

vrikhter 15y ago

Have you tried looking at factual.com?

akira2501 15y ago

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish, but the USPS TIGER database can (sometimes) be useful in this area: http://zip4.usps.com/ncsc/addressmgmt/tiger.htm http://zip4.usps.com/ncsc/addressmgmt/tiger.htm

alexgandy 15y ago
Here's a direct link to a CSV of the 2000 Census Fips Region/Zip code, which I believe is taken from the USPS TIGER DB: http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zips.txt http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zips.txt
- hhimanshu 15y ago
  This is awesome, it has loads of data, I can use it all, thank you
- hhimanshu 15y ago
  All I need is a mapping from county to cities, which is missing in this data too
hhimanshu 15y ago
this doesn't seem to have any link that gives this result

pauldi 15y ago

Have you tried geonames? I've not specifically used it for the US but that kind of information is in there for other countries. Only drawback of using geonames is that it can be a bit of effort getting what you want out of their feed. This seems to suggest the data you're after is in there: http://www.geonames.org/postal-codes/postal-codes-us.html http://www.geonames.org/postal-codes/postal-codes-us.html

gyardley 15y ago
Yep - with the possible exception of exact ZIP boundaries, it should all be on the download server: http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/ http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/ Grab the US.zip file and the English-language feature codes, filter down the data to the stuff you're interested in, and you're good to go.

chaithsc 15y ago

look up melissa data at http://www.melissadata.com/products/zip-data.htm http://www.melissadata.com/products/zip-data.htm

mjs00 15y ago

For $40 these guys have something that also includes area code, time zone and is recent data & quick download, if that matters for your project: http://zipcodedownload.com/Products/Product/Z5Commercial/Standard/Overview http://zipcodedownload.com/Products/Product/Z5Commercial/Sta... Regions for states is not something well defined, at least that I've found, as the definition varies depending on purpose (commerce, agriculture, political, ...). If you find something good, I'd love to hear about it.

hhimanshu 15y ago
for region to states, I found this - http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0770177.html http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0770177.html Let me know if that is what you were looking for
- mjs00 15y ago
  Hi hhimanshu - I totally mis-understood what you meant - if you were looking to group states into national regions, your link looks pretty good. I was thinking of regions in terms of grouping counties into logical/meaningful state regions. I do that thus far for CA and NY where in each I have about 10 regions.

eknuth 15y ago

If you aren't looking for an API solution, you might want to check this out: http://zips.sourceforge.net/ http://zips.sourceforge.net/ It isn't the most recent data, but it ought to get you started.