Creating Geographical Crosswalks

A Method to Construct Geographical Crosswalks with an Application to US Counties since 1790 [01/20] [Data Files] [NBER WP #26770] [Old Version]

Abstract:

Empirical researchers often have to map data provided for a reporting spatial unit, say counties in 1900, to a reference one, say, counties in 2010. We discuss a general method to create such crosswalks: computing the share of the area of each reporting unit nested in a given reference unit. Using these shares, data can be re-aggregated from the reporting to the reference units. We apply the method to construct a crosswalk for mapping US county-level data from 1790 to 2010 to present-day county or commuting zone delineations. We also provide the code to generate other crosswalks given maps of reporting and reference units.

US County Crosswalks:

1990 Counties   2010 Counties   1990 Commuting Zones  
Replication Package   Github Repo   Crosswalk Readme  
Usage Example   Example Readme  

US Commuting Zone Shapefile:

1990  
Source  

Creating General Geographical Crosswalks:

Python Codes   Github Repo  
Readme  

If you use the crosswalks or code posted on this website please cite:

Other Ready-made Crosswalks for US Data:

• For Census Tracts 1970-2010 is here
• The County Longitudinal Template we reference is here
• Richard Hornbeck provides county boundary fixes for 1880-1910 in the suppelementary material to: Barbed Wire: Property Rights and Agricultural Development here