Census Tracts by County

While it's pretty easy to figure out which cities are in a county, it's a little more challenging to figure out which Census tracts are in a county. There are several ways for you to get this information for your projects.

1. Use the Cubit Web Tool

You can use Cubit to identify the Census tracts by county data. With the Cubit web application, you outline your area of interest or county on an interactive map and then save your work. With one mouse click, you'll find out which Census tracts are in your area of interest as well as get maps and data describing those Census tracts.

To get Census Tract data via Cubit, you'll need to sign up for a Cubit account. You can get your free account by filling out the form to the right. Or if you want to know more before you sign up, check out the how Cubit works page.

2. Try the Census Bureau

Or you could try the Census tracts maps provided by the US Census Bureau. The US Census Bureau provides Census Tract maps by county images. Some researchers have said that the Census Bureau's image maps make it hard to determine which Census tracts are in their county. Plus, they have to manually select the Census tracts FIPS codes for their counties by hand using the Census' FactFinder. So you could absolutely get Census tracts by county data from the Census, but it could take you a long time to hunt the information down, especially if your area of interest is a dense urban county.

What are Census Tracts?

The Census Bureau divides counties into smaller subdivisions, which are Census Tracts. A Census tract typically has between 1,200 and 8,000 residents. The Census Bureau doesn't want to have to change Census tract boundaries. Ideally, the boundaries would stay the same so that we can easily compare Census tract data from one census to the next. Sometimes when there's a major change in a area (think a new roadway is built or the population sharply declines), then the Census Bureau may revise the tracts for that area.

You may also be interested in: Census Tract Numbers; Census Tract Finder; Income by Census Tract;Census Tract Demographics