Tiger/Lines or shapefiles of USA states and cities?

Question

Hi folks,

i've been asked to generate some demographic reports (crime rates, birth/deaths, etc) based on state and cities for the USA. I have all the demographic data (provided by our client) but can't seem to find any places which have the boundaries (read: LAT/LONG's) of the USA States and their cities.

Our data are Lat/Long points of data (eg. a crime, a birth, etc) and we want to get some mapped reports and also datamine using Sql server (we're using MS Sql 2008, but that shouldn't impact this question).

So .. can anyone direct me to where there are some state and city boundary sources? I know our government has all this information available for free at the US Census Bureau, but i can't seem to understand where it's found and how to digest this info.

I'm assuming that this info will be in the form of lat/long polygons (eg. a shapefile, etc) which i can then import into the DB and mine away.

Can anyone help, please?

Answer 1

I think you are looking for GIS data. For example, I found US Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2007FE Shapefiles Mississippi, United States although I am not sure what you get with the download nor how to exploit the information...

HTH.

Answer 2

Correct, i'm after GIS data for USA states and all their cities. I'm hoping someone might have some experience and lead me to some sites. This is so i can import them into MS SQL Server 2008 and use the geospatial methods on this data for data mining.

Answer 3

Here's a link to the 2008 TIGER/Line shapefiles, and it sounds like looking at the TIGER/Line Shapefiles FAQ would probably be helpful -- other info at the main page for the 2008 data set.

Answer 4

I can suggest the post http://adventuresdotnet.blogspot.com/2009/06/sql-server-2008-importing-tigerline.html