All organization-level NCCS data files based on IRS Forms 990, 1023, or 1024 data include organization street addresses (ADDRESS), city (CITY), and zipcode (both 10-digit ZIP and 5-digit ZIP5 codes), and STATE fields. They also contain county and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) codes used to identify major cities.
FIPS County Codes
NCCS organization databases include a FIPS field, which is the 5-digit code for the organization's county. (The FIPS code is the Federal Information Processing Standards code issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.) The first two digits of the county FIPS code identifies the state while the last three identify the county.
The list of county FIPS codes can be found at http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/statePicker.php?prog=geoCounties¶m=q&display=fips. Also, the DataWeb Summary Reports Tool automatically displays the FIPS code and county name when you select FIPS as your By (Row) Variable.
The FIPS codes are assigned by matching the 5-digit zipcode to a database containing more than 40,000 5-digit zipcodes in use and their PRIMARY FIPS codes. (The primary FIPS code is the area containing the largest portion of the zipcode.) In some cases, zipcodes span counties. In these situations, it is possible that the NCCS-assigned FIPS code may be inaccurate.
Note on Virginia FIPS: Virginia is unique among states in having a substantial number of relatively small cities and towns identified by their own county FIPS codes. We have observed that some county listings merge these small communities in with their surrounding counties. For example, Manassas City and Manassas Park City have their own FIPS codes but are often identified as part of its surrounding county.
Note on NEW county FIPS codes (2002): Two new county codes have been added. The first new county code is '12086' for Miami-Dade County, FL. The second one is '08005' for Arapahoe County, CO.
Typical IRS files have a small percentage of records -- less than 1 percent in recent Core and Digitized Data files -- that cannot be assigned a FIPS code. These limitations stem from several sources:
- Mistyped zipcodes
- Old zipcodes: A very small number of records (about 0.5%) have zipcodes that appear to no longer be in use. In the 1999 Form 990 Digitized Data files, there are 646 records out of nearly 200,000 records that have state identifiers but no FIPS code. To take the worst example, there are approximately 180 Massachusetts records list a Waltham zipcode that is no longer included in the national zipcode databases maintained by the U.S. Postal Service. NCCS hopes to correct this problem in future releases.
- New zipcodes: Some new zipcodes have yet to added to the latest zipcode database used by NCCS to assign FIPS codes.
- Missing zipcodes: NCCS receives a small number of records in most Form 990-based files that cannot be linked to any geographic information.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
Using the county FIPS codes, NCCS has also assigned MSA and PMSA (primary metropolitan statistical area) codes to virtually all organization records. The MSA field is named MSA_NECH and the PMSA is found in the field of the same name. The federal government has used two different coding systems for MSAs; NCCS uses the standard 4-digit version for its MSA field. Where the metropolitan statistical area is a Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA), that code is used. New England County Metrpolitan Areas (NECHMAs) are also found in this field.
The list of metropolitan statistical areas (1999 version, and the one used for all MSA_NECH fields in the NCCS files) is available at:
http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/99mfips.txt
The older 1990 version of MSA codes is at:
http://www.census.gov/datamap/fipslist/AllSt.txt
The latest release from OMB is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/bulletins/b10-02.pdf (Dec. 1, 2009).
Additional Resources
The latest zipcode-FIPS information can be searched using these sites:
http://www.getzips.com/zip.htm
http://sourcesoft.com/tech8.html
http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/plue/geocorr/htmls/counties.html
http://www.hometownlocator.com/
Some zipcodes that do no have corresponding FIPS codes in the 2003-2005 NCCS data files can be found in the attached excel file.
For the definition of MSA terms, see http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/aboutmetro.html at the U.S. Census Bureau web site.
The 2003 list of metropolitan statistical areas is available at:
http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/03msa.txt.
Other helpful links are:
- http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metrodef.html
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/statpolicy.html#ms
Zipcodes in Census Demographic Databases
These are ZCTAs -- zipcodes modified by the U.S. Census Bureau. For details, see http://www.census.gov/geo/ZCTA/zctafaq.html.
These are NOT used in any IRS files.