Geographic Names Information System: National Geographic Names Data Base, Populated Places in the United States (ICPSR 8369)

Principal Investigator(s): United States Department of the Interior. United States Geological Survey

Summary: The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to meet major national needs regarding geographic names and their standardization and dissemination. This dataset consists of standard report files written from the National Geographic Names Data Base, one of five data bases maintained in the GNIS. A standard format data file for each of the fifty States, the District of Columbia and the four Insular Territories of the United States is incl... (more info)

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United States Department of the Interior. United States Geological Survey. Geographic Names Information System: National Geographic Names Data Base, Populated Places in the United States. ICPSR08369-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1988. doi:10.3886/ICPSR08369.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08369.v1

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This survey was funded by:

• United States Department of the Interior. United States Geological Survey

Summary:   The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to meet major national needs regarding geographic names and their standardization and dissemination. This dataset consists of standard report files written from the National Geographic Names Data Base, one of five data bases maintained in the GNIS. A standard format data file for each of the fifty States, the District of Columbia and the four Insular Territories of the United States is included, as well as a file that provides a Cross-Reference to USGS 7.5 x 7.5 minute quadrangle maps. The records in the data files are organized in an alphabetized listing of all of the names in a particular state or territory. The other variables available in the dataset include: Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) state/county codes, Geographic Coordinates-- latitude and longitude to degrees, minutes, and seconds followed by a single digit alpha directional character, and a GNIS Map Code that can be used with the Cross-Reference file to provide the name of the 7.5 x 7.5 minute quadrangle map that contains that geographic feature.

Subject Terms:   computer aided mapping, computer programs, geography

Geographic Coverage:   Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, United States, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands of the United States, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Data Types:   survey data

Data Collection Notes:

The records per case vary widely, depending on the number of geographic features in the region represented by a given file. This collection may be used in conjunction with digitized sectional basemaps available in 1:2,000,000-scale. See UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DIGITAL CARTOGRAPHIC DATA STANDARDS: DIGITAL LINE GRAPHS FROM 1:2,000,000-SCALE MAPS (ICPSR 8379). There is a second, related data collection available from the ICPSR: GEOGRAPHIC NAMES INFORMATION SYSTEM: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NAMES DATABASE, MICHIGAN GEOGRAPHIC NAMES (ICPSR 8374).

Data Source:

Records or entries for most named geographic features on all United States Geological Survey 7.5-minute topographic map series, with the exception of road and highway names.

Original ICPSR Release:  1988-06-01

Version History:

• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 57 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 57 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

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