# ACS data with both census tract and CBSA values

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/acs-data-with-both-census-tract-and-cbsa-values/6649>\
**Category:** NHGIS\
**Created:** [June 27, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/acs-data-with-both-census-tract-and-cbsa-values/6649 "2025-06-27T15:33:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Huda\_Bashir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e19adc/32.png) [@Huda\_Bashir](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Huda_Bashir)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/acs-data-with-both-census-tract-and-cbsa-values/6649/1 "2025-06-27T15:33:56Z")

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Hi - I am new to use IPUMS data, so this may be a simple fix that I’m not aware of!

I used the web data extraction to select ACS data across all the year periods by both census tract and CBSA. The data files I downloaded included a tract level csv and a CBSA level csv (I had assumed CBSA data would be in the tract level dataset). How can I merge the two datasets together? The two have different GISJOIN codes (much longer for the census tract), and I want to make sure that I’m doing this correctly.

Thank you!  
Huda

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**Author:** ![MPC\_vanriper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@MPC\_vanriper](https://forum.ipums.org/u/MPC_vanriper)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/acs-data-with-both-census-tract-and-cbsa-values/6649/2 "2025-06-28T00:39:41Z")

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Dear Huda,

The CBSA codes typically aren’t included in tract data - it’s only provided with tract data for the decennial censuses. My colleague’s answer [here](https://forum.ipums.org/t/linking-census-tract-data-to-msa/4288/4) provides a link to the Census Bureau’s CBSA delineation files. These are based on counties, and you can link them to the tract data by state and county (STATEA and COUNTYA in NHGIS data files).

Sincerely,  
Dave Van Riper  
IPUMS

> [@Linking Census Tract data to MSA](https://forum.ipums.org/t/linking-census-tract-data-to-msa/4288/4):
>
> Thanks for sharing the example. I had previously checked a 2020 census file (from NHGIS dataset 2020\_PL94171), and in that case, the CBSAA field contains the correct codes. I’ve now checked tract-level files from several other datasets, and it appears that, generally, tract-level files from decennial censuses (at least 1990-2020) do contain metro area codes, but tract-level files from ACS datasets do not contain metro area codes. I also confirmed that this omission is original to the source: the…