ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs™) are a statistical geographic entity produced by the U.S. Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics from the 2010 Census, first developed for Census 2000. This entity was developed to overcome the difficulties in precisely defining the land area covered by each ZIP Code™, which is necessary in order to accurately tabulate census data for that area.

ZCTAs are generalized area representations of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) ZIP Code service areas. They represent the most frequently occurring five-digit ZIP Code found in a given area. Simply put, each ZCTA is built by aggregating 2010 Census blocks, whose addresses use a given ZIP Code. Each resulting ZCTA is then assigned the most frequently occurring ZIP Code as its ZCTA code. For more information, please refer to the ZCTA Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

The following items are available for ZCTAs:

• Boundaries and shapefiles
• Relationship files
• Gazetteers
• ZIP Code Statistics
• ZCTA statistics
• ZCTA Delineation Animation
• Technical Documentation (soon to be released)
• Census 2000 ZCTAs

It is important to note the following:

• All 2010 Census ZCTAs are full five-digit ZCTAs.
• No three-digit ZCTAs will be published, nor will any ZCTAs be published with an “HH” or “XX” suffix.
• Large water bodies, unpopulated land area, such as national parks, and sparsely populated areas for which the USPS has not assigned ZIP Codes, were excluded from the 2010 delineations. As a result, 2010 Census ZCTAs do not cover the full extent of the nation.
• In most instances the ZCTA code is the same as the ZIP Code for an area.
• In creating ZCTAs, the Census Bureau took the most frequently occurring ZIP Code in an area for the ZCTA code. Some addresses will end up with a ZCTA code different from their ZIP Code.
• Some ZIP Codes represent very few addresses (sometimes only one) and therefore will not appear in the ZCTA universe.
• The term ZCTA was created to differentiate between this entity and true USPS ZIP Codes. Information on the Census Bureau's position regarding ZIP Code data.
• ZCTA is a trademark of the U.S. Census Bureau; ZIP Code is a registered trademark of the U.S. Postal Service.
• The Census Bureau does not have U.S. Postal Service ZIP Code boundary files, nor do we have information or possible sources of such files.
• Census Bureau datasets tabulated by ZIP Code are listed on the ZIP Code Statistics page.

The 2010 release of the TIGER/Line^® files contain updated national ZCTAs reflecting U.S. Postal Service ZIP Code changes through October, 2010. There are currently no scheduled updates of ZCTAs until required for the 2020 Census.

As described above, the Census Bureau is tabulating the 2010 Census data by ZCTA, not U.S. Postal Service ZIP Code. Therefore, there are no ZIP Code geographic boundary products of any kind available from the 2010 Census.