A census tract is a statistical subdivision of a county drawn by the Census Bureau so population data can be reported for small areas. It is a counting unit rather than a legal or administrative one: nothing is zoned, taxed or governed by tract. Federal programs borrow the geography because the data already exists at that scale.
- A tract is a container for people, not a neighborhood. Its lines answer to the Census Bureau's counting, never to how anyone here describes where they live.
- Two buildings on one block can sit in different tracts. The boundary runs down a street and nothing on either side announces it.
- Every tract-level program inherits that geography, so a designation map is only ever as fine as the tract underneath it.
- A folio maps to a tract in minutes and the lookup is free. Assuming the tract from the neighborhood name is where the error enters.
How the Census Bureau sizes a tract.
A tract is sized by headcount, so in a dense city it can be a few blocks. The map is finer than the neighborhood names people actually use.
Related terms
All termsOpportunity Zone (QOZ)
A qualified opportunity zone is a census tract the federal government has designated so that investors who roll a capital gain into a fund operating there get specific tax treatment.
MarketsSubmarket
A submarket is the smallest area within which properties genuinely compete for the same tenant and the same buyer.
InvestmentQOF (Qualified Opportunity Fund)
A qualified opportunity fund is the corporation or partnership through which money has to travel to reach an Opportunity Zone.
Terms arrive with the writing.
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