Help… (Finding Census Tracts)

If you are having problems finding a census tract on PolicyMap, here are some suggestions on how to search and find a census tract.

• Make sure the correct state is selected from pull-down menu
• County names are not case sensitive but must be spelled correctly; PolicyMap will not auto-correct or show “matching” results
• For best results, census tract should be entered as a six (6) digit number
• Census tracts can be abbreviated but only by truncating trailing zeros
• e.g. 600300 can be entered as 6003
• e.g. 007300 can be entered as 0073, but not 7300 or 73

If you do not know the census tract number at a location, here are simple instructions on how to retrieve the information using PolicyMap

• Go to PolicyMap and clear any data layer, if loaded
• Search for a general geography the census tract would be located in (e.g. city, county, zip code, or actual address)
• Open the Map Options and select “census tracts”
• Once you click on the census tract, the information bubble will display the census tract number and the county
• Record the county and census tract information for later use
• On the map, click on the census tract which your location is located
• Zoom in, by double clicking on the map, if you cannot see the boundaries between census tracts