Congressional District

Dataset

Description

Political boundaries are used in federal elections for the selection of congressional representatives. There are a total of 435 congressional districts divided amongst the states based on decennial census populations. Each state is guaranteed to have at least one congressional district. Each state legislature has the authority to determine how its state is to be broken into congressional districts. The redistricting process usually tries to keep an equal number of voters in each district. For this reason, congressional districts can be a useful way to break the US into 435 areas of (roughly) equal population.

Geography Type Key: 35
Abbreviation: CD

Example

Sourcing

Congressional District maps are collected from states by the US Census Department and then published as part of its geographic database. The number of congressional districts allocated to a state is determined every ten years based on the results of the latest decennial census. At that time, the boundaries of each congressional district are established according to State law. Each congressional district must have about the same population as others within the same state.

ATTOM has a library of shape files that define the boundary of each congressional district. We have used those shape files to analyze 150 million properties and establish which congressional district each property falls within. Unless you have a specific need for the shapefiles you can take advantage of ATTOM's geocoding to purchase the lookup table that matches properties to congressional districts.

Note: Because county property lines are used as one of the criteria for defining a Census Block, a property should only fall within one Census Block.

Tables/Views

The following tables can be used to access Census Block information. When delivering solutions to customers, some or all of the information found in these tables may be consolidated into one or more views.

DimCongressionalDistrict

A register of US congressional districts, including their size and location.

Rows: 444
Columns: 20
Family: Boundary
Type: Area
Geography Type: 35

PropertyBoundaryMatch

The PropertyBoundaryMatch table can be used to:

• Identify the congressional district for a specific property; and
• Get a list of the properties that fall within a congressional district.

Dimension Tables

This data element does not require any additional dimension tables.

Product Articles (P-Articles)

All solution packs containing this data element will include the following p-articles to help you understand and use the data: -

• Congressional Boundaries 101