To find the census tract for an address, or to geocode an address into latitude and longitude, use the free Census Geocoder: enter the street address and it returns the matched coordinates plus the state, county, tract and block. A ZIP code alone is not enough, because tracts and ZIP codes are drawn independently.
Geocode an address with the Census Geocoder
- Open the Census Geocoder.
- Choose “Find Locations” for coordinates only, or “Find Geographies” for coordinates plus census geography.
- Enter the street, city, state and ZIP, and pick the current benchmark and vintage.
- Read the tract, county and block from the results. Batch files of addresses are also accepted.
The FFIEC geocoding system
Lenders reporting under CRA and HMDA use the FFIEC Geocoding/Mapping System, which returns the tract together with the demographic data those programs require.
Reading a census tract number
A full tract identifier (GEOID) has 11 digits: 2 for the state, 3 for the county and 6 for the tract. The tract part is often written with a decimal point, so 010100 appears as 101.00. Keep the state and county digits with it; tract numbers repeat across counties.
ZIP code to census tract
For aggregate analysis, the dated ZIP-Tract file from the HUD-USPS crosswalks lists every tract a ZIP touches with allocation ratios. It cannot tell you the tract of one address; only geocoding can. For counties see county by ZIP code.