TIGER/Line Shapefile, Current, Nation, U.S., Metropolitan Division

This resource is a member of a series. The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) System (MTS). The MTS represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Metropolitan divisions subdivide a metropolitan statistical area containing a single core urban area that has a population of at least 2.5 million to form smaller groupings of counties or equivalent entities. Not all metropolitan statistical areas with urban areas of this size will contain metropolitan divisions. Metropolitan division are defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and consist of one or more main counties or equivalent entities that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main county or counties through commuting ties. Because metropolitan divisions represent subdivisions of larger metropolitan statistical areas, it is not appropriate to rank or compare metropolitan divisions with metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The metropolitan division boundaries are those defined by OMB based on the 2020 Census and published in 2023.