The Census in Shapefiles

As mentioned a while back, the Census Bureau switched from the TIGER format to ESRI Shapefiles. Sure, you could get the TIGER data (2000 version) from ESRI, but it was difficult to find. Now the most current version is directly available from the Census in Shapefile format.

What I find most interesting is how far reaching this is. The TIGER/Line data format, was developed for the 1990 Census. Consider that the Shapefile is replacing a data format used for nearly 20 years in the (arguably) most important GIS dataset in existence (the linework and data has built entire industries, and is the dataset is Constitutionally mandated) . For this alone, the Shapefile will be around for a long, long, long time.

Its already been almost ten years since the Shapefile specification has been made public. Its likely that it will be in use in common use for another ten years.