MAINE GEOGRAPHIC CODES
FOR MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS
-by Dan Walters and David Kirouac
The Maine Geocodes were developed by the State Planning Office and were adopted by the Governor in July, 1971 as a method of providing a unique identifier (a unique number) for minor civil divisions (cities, towns, reservations, etc.) within the state. Over time, some agencies have adopted changes as they have occurred while other state agencies have not adopted the changes. As a result, there are different versions of the Geocodes that are used within state government.
What is a Geocode?
The Geocode is a 5-digit number that consists of a 2-digit county number (this is a federal code) followed by a 3-digit code that refers to the minor civil division (example: the code for Kennebec County is 11 and the Geocode for Augusta is 11020). There are federal codes for minor civil divisions (from the Bureau of the Census) but they vary greatly from the state codes because the federal codes do not recognize townships.
County Codes:
01 Androscoggin 17 Oxford
03 Aroostook 19 Penobscot
05 Cumberland 21 Piscataquis
07 Franklin 23 Sagadahoc
09 Hancock 25 Somerset
11 Kennebec 27 Waldo
13 Knox 29 Washington
15 Lincoln 31 York
Status Code
A status code (or letter code) is associated with each place name to indicate the type of minor civil division.
C = City V = Village
T = Town L = Location or Settlement
P = Plantation A = Alternate Name
R = Reservation
U = Unorganized Township
Geocodes Subcommittee
The Maine GIS Technical Committee formed a subcommittee to form a current basis for making recommendations regarding the ongoing use of the codes. The Committee initiated this study because of the widespread use of the codes in computer systems, including geographic information systems. Based upon reports from the GIS Technical Committee, the GIS Executive Council recommends that the following policies be adopted immediately:
1. All state agencies will use the standard geographic codes adopted on July1, 1971 to identify Maine minor civil divisions in databases, geospatial databases, spreadsheets and other computer based data storage and analysis systems. Four new geographic codes will be added to the 1971 list to identify the towns of Frye Island (05085), Long Island (05125), Muscle Ridge Shoals Township (13803), and Islands of Moosehead Lake (21000) which were either formed or recognized after 1971.
2. The Maine Office of GIS will be responsible for implementing, maintaining, and providing information about any version changes as follows:
(a) Maintain and provide access to a database relating the geographic code with the town name and official status (i.e., city, town, plantation, reservations, unorganized township).
(b) The status code will be changed to reflect changes in minor civil division status without changing the geographic code (i.e., the geographic code will never change).
(c) New minor civil divisions will be assigned geographic codes based upon the existing protocol, if possible. Using the "reserved" numbers will maintain the correspondence between a numerical sort and alphabetical order within county.
(d) If a minor civil division is legislated out of existence, the Geocode will be retired and tracked in related history databases.
The subcommittee continues to meet to evaluate other aspects of the Geocodes. The Geocodes database has been added to the BIS (Bureau of Information Services) Oracle server and is available for distribution. For more information on the process of accessing the Oracle server contact Jim Lopatosky at Jim.Lopatosky@state.me.us or 624-9410. The Geocodes database is available for download from http://musashi.ogis.state.me.us/data/tables/geocodes.zip.