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 dissemination functions; linking the address appearing on each census or survey questionnaire to its proper geographic location (for example, within a census block, a city, or a county); and providing the reference files and technology needed to assign the data collected to the full set of geographic entities used to report the results of that census or survey.

The value of most census and sample survey data relates directly to the ability of the Census Bureau to classify the data accurately and usefully into geographic areas, and to portray the geographic entities comprising those areas correctly and meaningfully on maps and in the resulting data products. The many geographic entities the Census Bureau recognizes and delineates often result in a geographic pattern that is quite complex. and in, “Geographic Overview,” provide a listing of the geographic entities for which the Census Bureau has tabulated statistical data in several of its recent censuses.

The Census Bureau strives to provide data for those geographic areas most useful to the many and varied users of those data. To do this, the Census Bureau presents data summaries for the Nation’s many legal and administrative entities, including States, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, counties, minor civil divisions (MCDs), incorporated places, congressional districts, and voting districts. To supplement these legally defined entities, the Census Bureau also provides data for a variety of other geographic entities that are helpful to the data users. To do this, the Census Bureau, usually in cooperation with State and local agencies, establishes, identifies, and delineates geographic entities referred to as statistical areas. These include regions, divisions, urbanized areas (UAs), census county divisions (CCDs), unorganized territories (UTs), census designated places (CDPs), census tracts, block numbering areas (BNAs), block groups (BGs), and census blocks. The data user community, composed of numerous individuals, businesses, and agencies at all levels of government, each with somewhat different needs, can then select the geographic entity or set Notes and References 1-2Census Bureau Geography