Reference · built on requestCommons signalPlaces & geographic reference

Census Geocoder

Address-to-coordinate and address-to-geography lookups from the US Census Bureau's Geocoding Services API, single or batch, no key.

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About

The Census Geocoder is the US Census Bureau's address look-up service. It matches a street address to address ranges in the MAF/TIGER database and returns an interpolated longitude and latitude, the matched address, the TIGER line, and, on request, the census geographies that contain it. The REST interface takes one address per call at /geocoder/{returntype}/{searchtype}, or a CSV or Excel file of up to 10,000 rows at /geocoder/{returntype}/addressbatch. No key is required.

On Fibric, an operator runs your unmatched or newly entered addresses through the geocoder and proposes the corrected coordinates, county, or tract for your approval, with the match result and benchmark attached.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from Census Geocoder and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • Return types locations and geographies, with searchtype onelineaddress, address, addressPR, or coordinates (coordinates only with geographies)
  • addressMatches entries: matchedAddress, coordinates x and y, tigerLine side and tigerLineId, and addressComponents such as streetName, city, state, and zip
  • geographies keyed by layer, each with GEOID, NAME, CENTLAT, CENTLON, TRACT, COUNTY, and BLKGRP, expanded with layers=all
  • Benchmarks listed at /geocoder/benchmarks: Public_AR_Current, Public_AR_ACS2025, Public_AR_LUCA, and Public_AR_Census2020
  • Vintages listed at /geocoder/vintages: Current_Current, Census2020_Current, Census2010_Current, and ACS2017_Current through ACS2025_Current
  • Batch results for a CSV, TXT, DAT, XLS, or XLSX file of up to 10,000 rows in Unique ID, Street address, City, State, ZIP order
  • Batch geoLookup at /geocoder/geographies/coordinatesbatch, which returns state, county, tract, and block codes only

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Fix an address the carrier could not deliver

    Send the failed ship-to through onelineaddress against Public_AR_Current. When the geocoder returns a match, the operator proposes the matchedAddress and coordinates as the correction and shows the original beside it.

    With Address Repair

  • Assign accounts to territories by county

    Batch your customer file in 10,000-row chunks to geographies/addressbatch. The operator groups accounts by the returned county and tract and proposes territory moves where a county's count drifts from plan.

    With Territory Balance

  • Compare sites on the same census geography

    Geocode each store or branch with layers=all and keep its tract GEOID. The operator uses the shared geography to line up sites in a benchmark and flags outliers for review.

    With Site Benchmark

Requirements

  • A structured address: onelineaddress as one string, or street with zip, or street with city and state
  • A benchmark by name or id on every call, and a vintage whenever returntype is geographies
  • format=json, or format=jsonp with a callback; the service does not support CORS, so browser calls need jsonp
  • Batches split into files of 10,000 rows or fewer; larger sets go as separate submissions
Authentication
None. The Geocoding Services API takes no key or account; single lookups are HTTPS GETs and a batch is a multipart POST of the address file.

Limits

  • Coordinates are interpolated along TIGER address ranges, not rooftop points, and the ranges include structure numbers that may not exist
  • Non-residential, newly built, renumbered, or demolished addresses may not match; Title 13 disclosure rules can suppress a match in sparse areas
  • The FAQ documents inconsistent batch match counts under processing load and advises resubmitting only the unmatched rows
  • Coverage is the United States, Puerto Rico, and the US Island Areas; the batch geoLookup returns state, county, tract, and block only

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

Request Census Geocoder ↗

Questions and answers

Does the Census Geocoder need an API key?
No. The Geocoding Services API documentation names no key, account, or fee. Single-address calls are HTTPS GETs with a benchmark, plus a vintage when you ask for geographies. Rate limits are not documented; the FAQ notes that batch matching can vary under processing load.
What is the difference between a benchmark and a vintage?
A benchmark is the snapshot of address ranges, taken generally twice a year, such as Public_AR_Current or Public_AR_Census2020. A vintage selects the geographies in place for a survey or census, such as ACS2019_Current, and applies only when returntype is geographies.
How large can a batch be?
10,000 rows per file, in CSV, TXT, DAT, XLS, or XLSX, ordered Unique ID, Street address, City, State, ZIP. Puerto Rico rows carry Urbanization in the sixth column. The FAQ says the cap keeps processing time down and that larger sets must be split into several submissions.
Ask about Census Geocoder

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by US Census Bureau, Geography Division (geocoding.geo.census.gov). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy