Census Gazetteer Files - Places
The Census Bureau's authoritative list of place names, identifiers, land area and representative coordinates.
The Bureau states that "The U.S. Gazetteer Files provide a listing of all geographic areas for selected geographic area types. The files include geographic identifier codes, names, area measurements, and representative latitude and longitude coordinates." This record covers the national places file, which lists incorporated cities and towns and census designated places.
Coverage#
The 2025 national places file contains 32,350 records. Every record carries a unique place identifier, so there are no duplicates or blanks in the list. The file is a pipe-delimited reference product, published annually; the Bureau lists the 2025 national places file as last modified 10 September 2025.
Our own list holds 32,058 of those places. Coordinates in the file are representative points rather than downtown centers or centroids of population.
How we use it#
This is where place names come from. When Birdseye labels a city or town, identifies which places exist, or reports a place's land area, the Gazetteer is the authority behind it. It is also what fixes the identifier used for a place consistently across every dataset that reports at place level.
It carries no statistics and produces no metric.
Considerations#
Census places are legal and statistical entities, not everyday geography. Many neighborhoods and unincorporated communities that people name are not places in this file, and some places share a name with another in a different state. Place boundaries and the place list change between annual vintages as areas incorporate, annex or dissolve.
Citation#
U.S. Census Bureau, 2025 U.S. Gazetteer Files, National Places file.
Per Census Bureau citation policy, the Bureau is cited as the source of the original data only.
References#
- 1Gazetteer Fileshttps://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html
- 2Census Bureau citation policyhttps://www.census.gov/about/policies/citation.html