In order to provide you with the most accurate, stable, and useful geographic information for your marketing efforts, GeoTAX marries the following standard systems for identifying geographic areas.
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Political Geography — Comprises the major governmental boundaries. Political areas include the states, counties, minor civil divisions, and more. For the purposes of this overview, states and counties of the United States are the only political areas we address.
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Census Geography — For computer processing purposes, and to create more useful divisions for the purposes of collecting and reporting demographic data, the Census Bureau provides statistical standards for the geographic division of the United States. These are called Statistical or Census geographic divisions. This census geography is the main resource for appending your addresses with information useful for target-marketing and other demographic marketing strategies.
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Postal Geography — Postal geographic divisions are created by the USPS for the convenience of mail delivery. The fundamental division is the ZIP Code. A ZIP Code represents an area that is serviced by a single Post Office. The need for new Post Offices dictates the creation and alteration of postal zones. They are therefore unconcerned with governmental or demographic unity (unlike statistical geographic divisions). They are, however, very specific at the ZIP+4 level, often reducing the geographic area to a single city block, a single building, or even a single suite in a building.