HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) United States Department of Housing and Urban Development

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  HUD USPS Census Tract Crosswalk 02/14/2025 01:42:PM
HUD USPS Census Crosswalk Documentation.pdf application/pdf 1.6 MB 02/13/2025 12:13:PM
HUD USPS Census Crosswalk FAQ.pdf application/pdf 1.3 MB 02/14/2025 08:46:AM

Project Citation: 

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-04-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/E219462V2

Project Description

Project Title:  View help for Project Title HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk
Summary:  View help for Summary
One of the many challenges that social science researchers and practitioners face is the difficulty of relating data between census tracts which are re-delineated with each decennial census. While some methods of harmonizing or crosswalking data between census tracts exist, to provide additional avenues for merging these data, PD&R has released the HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk Files. These unique files are derived from the USPS Vacancy Data which are regularly updated by the USPS which makes them uniquely positioned to describe human settlements patterns between census tract delineations. These data use the locations of ZIP+4 centroids, an extremely granular level of geography, the number of addresses of various types (residential, business, other, and total), and do not rely on ancillary data to map where population or households might be located.

There are two types of HUD-USPS Census Tract Crosswalk Files to use. The first are used to crosswalk data from 2010 through 2019 in 2010 census tracts to 2020 census tracts. The second are used to crosswalk data from 2020 through 2023 in 2020 census tracts to 2010 census tracts. It is important to note that the relationship between the two types of crosswalk files is not perfectly inverse. That is to say, the 2010 to 2020 census tract crosswalk files cannot be used to crosswalk data from 2020 to 2010 census tracts and the inverse cannot be used, either.

In addition to the files, this collection also includes screenshots of the documentation and FAQ pages on HUD's distribution site.

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Microdata: No                                                                                        
Level of Analysis: Group - GEOID, residential ratios 
Variables Present: Yes - separate document                                                    
File Layout: .xslx                                                                               
Codebook: No                                                                      
Methods: Yes                                        
Weights (with appropriate documentation): No                             
Publications: Yes                                                                              
Aggregate Data: Yes
Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/census_tract_crosswalk.html

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms census tract level; crosswalk; usps
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States of America
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2010 – 2024
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data


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Published Versions

V2 [2026-04-07]

V1 [2025-02-14]

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