---
id: "us_zcta"
kind: "datatype"
status: "draft"
is_pii: false
categories: ["geo", "government"]
country: ["US"]
langs: ["en"]
quality: 75
url: "https://registry.apicrafter.io/datatype/us_zcta"
---

# US ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) (`us_zcta`)

> **Draft.** Draft records have not been reviewed yet and may be incomplete or wrong; do not treat them as authoritative for legal or compliance decisions.

Five-character code of a ZIP Code Tabulation Area, the Census Bureau's area approximation of a USPS 5-digit ZIP Code built from census blocks. A 2020 ZCTA code is a valid ZIP Code, but not every ZIP Code has a ZCTA, and ZCTAs are not used to deliver mail. Codes can start with zero.

- Personal data (PII): no
- Categories: Geographic identifiers (geo), Government related (government)
- Countries: United States (US)
- Languages: English (en)
- Classification: categorical

## Detection

Regular expression (Python `re`):

```
^\d{5}$
```

## Examples

- `20746` — Suitland, MD
- `15007` — ZCTA used in the Census Data API guide
- `20746-1234` (invalid example) — a ZIP+4 code

## Sources

- wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code_Tabulation_Area>
- wikidata: <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8063114>
- doc: <https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/zctas.html>

## Quality

Score 75/100. Missing: mapping (Wikidata, Schema.org, ...), translation, detector coverage.

JSON: <https://registry.apicrafter.io/api/v1/datatypes/us_zcta.json> · Edit: <https://github.com/apicrafter/metacrafter-registry/edit/main/data/datatypes/US/geo/us_zcta.yaml>