# Why do I receive so many data files in my downloaded zipped file?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/why-do-i-receive-so-many-data-files-in-my-downloaded-zipped-file/206>\
**Category:** NHGIS\
**Created:** [January 14, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/why-do-i-receive-so-many-data-files-in-my-downloaded-zipped-file/206 "2013-01-14T13:05:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![NHGIS\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/13edae/32.png) [@NHGIS\_Project](https://forum.ipums.org/u/NHGIS_Project)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/why-do-i-receive-so-many-data-files-in-my-downloaded-zipped-file/206/1 "2013-01-14T13:05:00Z")

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Why do I receive so many data files in my downloaded zipped file?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NHGIS\_Project](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/13edae/32.png) [@NHGIS\_Project](https://forum.ipums.org/u/NHGIS_Project)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/why-do-i-receive-so-many-data-files-in-my-downloaded-zipped-file/206/2 "2013-01-22T03:15:00Z")

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A tabular data file is returned for each dataset, geographic level, and year for which tables are selected. If you only downloaded county level data for one year and from one dataset, you will only receive one data file. If your data extract request was more expansive, however, you can expect more data files. For example, selecting data from 1940 and 1950 at the state and county geographic levels, you would receive four data files (1940 state, 1940 county, 1950 state, 1950 county).