United States Cities Database

We're proud to offer a simple, accurate and up-to-date database of United States cities and towns. We've built it from the ground up using authoritative sources such as the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Census Bureau.

  • Up-to-date: Data updated as of May 6, 2024.
  • Comprehensive: Over 109,000 cities and towns from all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
  • Useful fields: From latitude and longitude to household income.
  • Accurate: Aggregated and cleaned from official sources.
  • Simple: A single CSV file, concise field names, only one entry per city/town.

Databases

BasicProComprehensive
Commercial useAllowedAllowedAllowed
File formatCSV, ExcelCSV, Excel, SQLCSV, Excel, SQL
All Census-recognized cities/townsYesYesYes
Unincorporated populated placesNoYesYes
Number of entries30,844109,039109,039
Fields (listed below)Basic fieldsMore fieldsAll fields
Future updatesNot guaranteedIncluded for 12 monthsIncluded for 24 months
AttributionRequiredNot requiredNot required
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 4.0Permissive, no redistributionPermissive, no redistribution
Refund policyN/A30-day guarantee30-day guarantee
One-time feeFree$99$199
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Visualization

Here is a visualization of the data in the continental United States in our paid databases:

Sample Preview

Here is a sample of rows from the database with some commonly used fields:

*income_household_median (shortened for space)


All Fields

fieldname description Basic Pro Comp.
city The name of the city/town.
city_ascii city as an ASCII string.
city_alt Alternative name of the city/town. (e.g. Saint Louis)
lat The latitude of the city/town.
lng The longitude of the city/town.
state_id The state or territory's USPS postal abbreviation.
state_name The name of the state or territory that contains the city/town.
county_fips The 5-digit FIPS code for the primary county. The first two digits correspond to the state's FIPS code.
county_name The name of the primary county (or equivalent) that contains the city/town.
county_fips_all The 5-digit FIPS code for all counties that overlap the city/town (e.g. 04013|04021)
county_name_all The name of all counties that overlap the city/town. (e.g. Maricopa|Pinal)
population An estimate of the city's urban population.
population_proper An estimate of the city's municipal population.
density The estimated population per square kilometer.
incorporated TRUE if the place is a city/town. FALSE if the place is just a commonly known name for a populated area.
cdp TRUE if the place is a Census Designated Place. Census designated places are concentrations of population tracked by the Census for statistical purposes.
timezone The city's time zone in the tz database format. (e.g. America/Los_Angeles)
ranking An integer from 1-5 that captures the importance of a city (1 is most important, 5 least important).
zips A string containing all five-digit zip codes in the city/town, delimited by a space. Learn more.
id A 10-digit unique id generated by SimpleMaps. It is consistent across releases and databases (e.g. World Cities Database).
source For some cities, our data is generated from a polygon representing the city, for others we simply have a point.
military TRUE if this place is a military establishment such as a fort or base.
township TRUE if the place is a township in the Northeastern part of the United States as these are often functionally equivalent to cities.
age_median The median age of residents in the city.
male The percentage of residents who report being male (e.g. 55.1).
female The percentage of residents who report being female (e.g. 44.9).
married The percentage of residents who report being married (e.g. 44.9).
family_size The average size of resident families (e.g. 3.22).
income_household_median Median household income in USD.
income_household_six_figure Percentage of households that earn at least $100,000 (e.g. 25.3)
home_ownership Percentage of households that own (rather than rent) their residence.
housing_units The number of occupied housing units (or households) in the zip code.
home_value The median value of owner-occupied homes. (Specifically: the weighted average of the value of owner-occupied housing units that have mortgages and the value of owner-occupied housing units that don't have a mortgage).
rent_median The median rent paid by renters.
education_college_or_above The percentage of residents with at least a 4-year degree.
labor_force_participation The percentage of residents 16 and older in the labor force.
unemployment_rate The percentage of residents unemployed.
race_white The percentage of residents who report their race White.
race_black The percentage of residents who report their race as Black or African American.
race_asian The percentage of residents who report their race as Asian.
race_native The percentage of residents who report their race as American Indian and Alaska Native.
race_pacific The percentage of residents who report their race as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
race_other The percentage of residents who report their race as Some other race.
race_multiple The percentage of residents who report their race as Two or more races.
hispanic The percentage of residents who report being Hispanic. Note: Hispanic is considered to be an ethnicity and not a race.
age_under_10 The percentage of residents aged 0-9.
age_10_to_19 The percentage of residents aged 10-19.
age_20s The percentage of residents aged 20-29.
age_30s The percentage of residents aged 30-39.
age_40s The percentage of residents aged 40-49.
age_50s The percentage of residents aged 50-59.
age_60s The percentage of residents aged 60-69.
age_70s The percentage of residents aged 70-79.
age_over_80 The percentage of residents aged over 80.
age_18_to_24 The percentage of residents aged 18 to 24.
age_over_18 The percentage of residents aged over 18.
age_over_65 The percentage of residents aged over 65 (retirement age).
divorced The percentage of residents divorced.
never_married The percentage of residents never married.
widowed The percentage of residents who are widowed.
family_dual_income The percentage of families with dual income earners.
income_household_under_5 The percentage of households with income under $5,000.
income_household_5_to_10 The percentage of households with income from $5,000-$10,000.
income_household_10_to_15 The percentage of households with income from $10,000-$15,000.
income_household_15_to_20 The percentage of households with income from $15,000-$20,000.
income_household_20_to_25 The percentage of households with income from $20,000-$25,000.
income_household_25_to_35 The percentage of households with income from $25,000-$35,000.
income_household_35_to_50 The percentage of households with income from $35,000-$50,000.
income_household_50_to_75 The percentage of households with income from $50,000-$75,000.
income_household_75_to_100 The percentage of households with income from $75,000-$100,000.
income_household_100_to_150 The percentage of households with income from $100,000-$150,000.
income_household_150_over The percentage of households with income over $150,000.
income_individual_median The median income of individuals in the city/town.
home_value The median value of owner occupied homes.
rent_burden The median rent as a percentage of the median renter's household income.
education_less_highschool The percentage of residents with less than a high school education.
education_highschool The percentage of residents with a high school diploma but no more.
education_some_college The percentage of residents with some college but no more.
education_bachelors The percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) but no more.
education_graduate The percentage of residents with a graduate degree.
education_stem_degree The percentage of residents with a Bachelor's degree or higher in a Science and Engineering (or related) field.
disabled The percentage of residents who report a disability.
poverty The percentage of residents who over the past 12 months have lived below 100% of the federal poverty level.
limited_english The percentage of residents who only speak limited English.
commute_time The median commute time of resident workers in minutes.
health_uninsured The percentage of residents who report not having health insurance.
veteran The percentage of residents who are veterans.
cbsa_fips The FIPS code for the Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) that includes the city (if one exists).
cbsa_name The name of the CBSA (e.g. New York-Newark-Jersey City).
cbsa_metro TRUE if cbsa_name is a metropolitan statistical area (MSA). FALSE if the CBSA is a micropolitan statistical area (μSAs).
csa_fips The FIPS code for the Combined Statistical Area (CSA) that includes the city (if one exists).
csa_name The name of the CSA (e.g. New York-Newark).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Basic (free) version sufficient for my needs?

The Basic (free) database will meet many users' needs. You may want to purchase the Pro or Comprehensive versions if:

  • You need data for rural towns/villages or places that aren't incorporated municipalities.
  • You need demographic data such as age, race, education or income.
  • You don't want to (or can't) attribute your use of our data on a public-facing website.

What is an unincorporated populated place?

These are typically rural towns/villages that have commonly known names but do not exist as legal entities.

Do you omit any populated places?

Yes. For clarity we don't show multiple places with the same name in the same state. We only show the most important place of a given name in each state. The only exception to this is when multiple places with the same name are tracked by the Census (signaling their importance). Also, we omit some unincorporated places that are particularly insignificant.

Do you include townships?

Townships are technically county subdivisions and often act more like a county than a city/town. However, in the Northeast many townships are functionally equivalent to cities. Therefore, we include townships in the following states: ME, VT, NH, MA, RI, CT, NJ, NY, PA. If a place is a township the field township is TRUE.

Am I allowed to redistribute the database if I purchase a paid license?

No. You are not allowed to sell the database or make it publicly available. However, you can make copies and backups of the data. You are also allowed to query the database to power publicly facing applications such as a store locator. To learn more, read the full license terms.

How often do you release updates?

It depends, we monitor our sources and release new versions when we have more current data, typically a few times a year. Upon purchase, you can elect to receive email alerts when we release new versions of the database.

Why should I trust this data?

This database was aggregated from authoritative sources and carefully processed by SimpleMaps. We've been developing and selling interactive maps to Fortune 500 companies and prominent international organizations for over 14 years. Over this time, we've learned a lot about geographic data. To get a sense of the expertise and support we offer, check out some of the testimonials from our happy customers.

If I use the free database, what type of attribution is required?

If you use the Basic (free) database, you must link back to this page:
https://simplemaps.com/data/us-cities
from a public webpage where you are using the data. If you want to use the data internally, you must link back to this page from your firm's website on a page that can be easily found though links on the root domain. The link must be clearly visible to the human eye.

How recent are the demographic variables such as income_household_median?

Nearly all of the demographic variables come from the 2022 American Community Survey (5-year estimate) which is run by the United States Census Bureau. The value of population is estimated using 2022 ACS 1-year data (when available for urban areas) and 2022 ACS 5-year data when not.

How come some demographic variables are blank (empty strings) for some cities?

Demographic variables are only available for places recognized by the Census. Also, the Census Bureau will only provide demographic data if the city/town is large enough to protect resident privacy. So, for smaller places, some variables may not be available.

How do I calculate the distance between two cities?

We've published free formulas in popular programming languages. Check them out.

Does the database include commonly known populated places even if they don't have a legal/municipal existence?

Yes, such places are included in our Pro and Comprehensive databases. The field incorporated will have a value of FALSE for such places.

Does the database contain neighborhoods?

No, the database does not typically contained named places that are within other listed towns/cities. The only exception to this is that both New York City and its boroughs (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island) are included. If you need neighborhoods, we have a US Neighborhoods Database.

How do you determine which zip codes are in a city?

Our zip code data comes from our Zip Code Database. Most zip codes are Zip Code Tabulation Areas and are represented as a geographic area. We consider a ZCTA to be part of a city if the area intersecting both the ZCTA and city is at least 10 percent of the area of either the city or the ZCTA. This means that a ZCTA can be in more than one city. If this method does not result in a zip code, we will use the closest zip in the immediate area. For some villages in remote locations (like the Aleutian Islands) no zip code exists.

Has your database been updated with results from the 2020 Census?

Yes, all latitude and longitude coordinates for ZCTAs (and geographic relationships) are now based on ZCTA shapes from the 2020 Census. We're also now using the 2022 American Community Survey (5-year estimate) for demographic data.

Can you provide more detailed demographic data from the Census?

In some cases, yes. For example, we do store disaggregated age buckets (every five years) internally. Let us know what you're looking for and we'll let you know if we can provide it as part of the Comprehensive Database (no additional charge) or whether we could collect for you for a fee.

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