Is there a data source available that has the full history (right back to the 1960's) of each US zip code?
By history I mean, for each zip code:
In most cases, these are are same as today, but especially in faster-growing states it can be wrong to assume that a zip code covers the same area 20-50 years later, and there have been many other changes including renumbering.
Knowing the extent of each zip code decades ago is also useful for long-running social and medical studies, where a zip code (from the period) is often the only geographic identifier available (despite being unsuitable for this purpose).
I've researched this for a while and believe I can reconstruct a large part of the history from primary sources I've located. I think that it would be useful to many others, and I'd release the results as open data. But it's a sizable task, I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
There are some commercial sources that might go back to the 1990's, but my main interest is the earlier period, and I want the results to be open data that I can share, so they're unlikely to be suitable or have the right license.
So, does a history of every US zip code (from the 1960's on, not just recent years), ideally with geographic co-ordinates, already exist, in a form that can be re-used?
أكثر...
By history I mean, for each zip code:
- the date it was created, if later than 1 July 1963,
- the date it ceased to exist, if it no longer exists
- any splits/merges/swaps/renumbering of any part of the zip code, and the date it happened
- the named places (primary and alternate) for the zip code (or any other way to locate it), and the dates of any changes
- the center point (geographic or population) of the zip code, on a given date or range of dates
- the pseudo “boundary” of the zip code (or closely related polygons like ZCTAs, in recent years), again for a specific date or period.
In most cases, these are are same as today, but especially in faster-growing states it can be wrong to assume that a zip code covers the same area 20-50 years later, and there have been many other changes including renumbering.
Knowing the extent of each zip code decades ago is also useful for long-running social and medical studies, where a zip code (from the period) is often the only geographic identifier available (despite being unsuitable for this purpose).
I've researched this for a while and believe I can reconstruct a large part of the history from primary sources I've located. I think that it would be useful to many others, and I'd release the results as open data. But it's a sizable task, I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
There are some commercial sources that might go back to the 1990's, but my main interest is the earlier period, and I want the results to be open data that I can share, so they're unlikely to be suitable or have the right license.
So, does a history of every US zip code (from the 1960's on, not just recent years), ideally with geographic co-ordinates, already exist, in a form that can be re-used?
أكثر...