BBER has created one-page Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) maps by county for New Mexico. This will eliminate some of the work in dealing with the Census Bureau's map products when all you need is a simple ZCTA outline map.
A ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA) is a statistical entity developed by the U.S. Census Bureau to approximate the delivery area for a U.S. Postal Service 5-digit or 3-digit ZIP Code in the United States and Puerto Rico. A ZCTA is an aggregation of census blocks that have the same predominant ZIP Code associated with the mailing addresses in the Census Bureau's Master Address File. Thus, the Postal Service's delivery areas have been adjusted to encompass whole census blocks so that the Census Bureau can tabulate census data for the ZCTAs. For areas larger than 25 square miles for which the Census Bureau's Master Address File contained no addresses with ZIP Codes, the Census Bureau used the first 3 digits of the ZIP Code(s) that serve the area or nearby areas. After such 3-digit codes there is a suffix of "XX". A water feature that could not logically be assigned to a specific ZCTA is assigned a 3-digit code followed by "HH" to indicate that the water feature could not be assigned meaningfully to any adjacent land ZCTA. ZCTAs do not include all ZIP Codes used for mail delivery. However, most ZCTAs closely approximate Zip Code delivery areas.
Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or
print the PDF maps. It's available free-of-charge from the Adobe website.
If you open the JPG versions and find the map is small and difficult to read, either click in the center of the map or click the "expansion" button that appears on your screen to enlarge the map.
