An unmappable address can have a variety of reasons:
❌ This isn’t a residential address
Most failed mapping attempts are because you entered a business address. We double-check every entry with the Census Bureau’s Master Address File. This is the base address file containing all residential addresses across the US used for the decennial census and the American Community Surveys. It is continuously being updated and is considered the “authoritative file of addresses” and is in many cases more precise than the address files the USPS uses.
❌ The parcel this address identifies crosses district boundaries
Technically this shouldn’t happen, as all districts in the US need to follow Census Block borders. A Census Block is the smallest geographic unit into which the US is broken up. Especially in unincorporated territories (= areas that don’t belong to a town or city), it could happen that a parcel to which an address belongs crosses through multiple Census Blocks. In these rare instances, the Census Master Address File can’t allocate your geographic coordinates precisely, and we can’t map your address.
❌ The Census didn’t map your address correctly
On very rare occasions, your address is incorrectly mapped in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File. If the file mapped your longitude and latitude incorrectly, our CivicMap might incorrectly assign you certain districts or miss out on some. This could happen especially if the address you entered is towards the border of some districts.
You can check this out yourself by searching for the address again on the Census Geocoder and copy-paste longitude & latitude information on a map, e.g., https://www.openstreetmap.org — you’ll see where the Census thinks this address is located.
❌ Google Maps can’t find your address
On rare occasions, the Google Maps API doesn’t share proper longitude and latitude coordinates with us. If this is the case, our backend mapping algorithm isn’t capable of assigning your districts properly.