CA Zip Code Boundaries

This feature service is derived from the Esri "United States Zip Code Boundaries" layer, queried to only CA data.For the original data see: https://esri.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=5f31109b46d541da86119bd4cf213848Published by the California Department of Technology Geographic Information Services Team.The GIS Team can be reached at ODSdataservices@state.ca.gov.U.S. ZIP Code Boundaries represents five-digit ZIP Code areas used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail more effectively. The first digit of a five-digit ZIP Code divides the United States into 10 large groups of states (or equivalent areas) numbered from 0 in the Northeast to 9 in the far West. Within these areas, each state is divided into an average of 10 smaller geographical areas, identified by the second and third digits. These digits, in conjunction with the first digit, represent a Sectional Center Facility (SCF) or a mail processing facility area. The fourth and fifth digits identify a post office, station, branch or local delivery area.As of the time this layer was published, in January 2025, Esri's boundaries are sourced from TomTom (June 2024) and the 2023 population estimates are from Esri Demographics. Esri updates its layer annually and those changes will immediately be reflected in this layer. Note that, because this layer passes through Esri's data, if you want to know the true date of the underlying data, click through to Esri's original source data and look at their metadata for more information on updates.Cautions about using Zip Code boundary dataZip code boundaries have three characteristics you should be aware of before using them:Zip code boundaries change, in ways small and large - these are not a stable analysis unit. Data you received keyed to zip codes may have used an earlier and very different boundary for your zip codes of interest.Historically, the United States Postal Service has not published zip code boundaries, and instead, boundary datasets are compiled by third party vendors from address data. That means that the boundary data are not authoritative, and any data you have keyed to zip codes may use a different, vendor-specific method for generating boundaries from the data here.Zip codes are designed to optimize mail delivery, not social, environmental, or demographic characteristics. Analysis using zip codes is subject to create issues with the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem that will bias any results because your units of analysis aren't designed for the data being studied.As of early 2025, USPS appears to be in the process of releasing boundaries, which will at least provide an authoritative source, but because of the other factors above, we do not recommend these boundaries for many use cases. If you are using these for anything other than mailing purposes, we recommend reconsideration. We provide the boundaries as a convenience, knowing people are looking for them, in order to ensure that up-to-date boundaries are available.