HELP - Absurd project on a deadline!

Hi,

Someone from our headquarters wants a report of how many customers per
"Metropolitation Statistical Area" (MSA) we have in our database. See
http://www.census.gov/population/es...neral/List4.txt  for
the complete list of MSA's.

Problem is, each MSA only lists one, two or three cites per area. For
example, "Boston-Cambridge-Quincy". Which leaves out EVERY other city
in that area, such as Roxbury, etc. (However, these four cities all
fall into zip codes either starting with 021 or 022).

So, doing a search by MSA city is impossible. It would miss a lot of
customers whose cities aren't listed in a given MSA, for example,
Roxbury.

Alternatively, I could use the first few digits of the zip codes. For
example, Boston zip codes start with 021 or 022. That would capture all
other cities within that area, I am thinking, or close enough.

However, the MSA website does not have any zip codes listed.

And futhermore, I am the one who has to find these zip codes... seems
like it's going to be very aggravating, long day having to look up
these zip codes.

Please, please please someone tell me there is a listing of zip codes
per MSA... or has ANYONE had to do a similar project - and can give me
some advice?

THANKS

A quick GOOGLE with the words MSA ZIP turned up commercial databases
of zip data that includes the MSA code.  The price for the one I
looked at was something like $80, and it is a download so you can
don't have to wait.  I know nothing other than that I found it just
now, but $80 seems pretty reasonable.  The link to the page I found,
to which I have no connection, is
http://www.zip-codes.com/zip-code-database.asp

Roy Harvey
Beacon Falls, CT

On 13 Dec 2006 11:53:10 -0800, tootsuite@gmail.com wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Someone from our headquarters wants a report of how many customers per
>"Metropolitation Statistical Area" (MSA) we have in our database. See
>http://www.census.gov/population/es...neral/List4.txt  for
>the complete list of MSA's.
>
>Problem is, each MSA only lists one, two or three cites per area. For
>example, "Boston-Cambridge-Quincy". Which leaves out EVERY other city
>in that area, such as Roxbury, etc. (However, these four cities all
>fall into zip codes either starting with 021 or 022).
>
>So, doing a search by MSA city is impossible. It would miss a lot of
>customers whose cities aren't listed in a given MSA, for example,
>Roxbury.
>
>Alternatively, I could use the first few digits of the zip codes. For
>example, Boston zip codes start with 021 or 022. That would capture all
>other cities within that area, I am thinking, or close enough.
>
>However, the MSA website does not have any zip codes listed.
>
>And futhermore, I am the one who has to find these zip codes... seems
>like it's going to be very aggravating, long day having to look up
>these zip codes.
>
>Please, please please someone tell me there is a listing of zip codes
>per MSA... or has ANYONE had to do a similar project - and can give me
>some advice?
>
>THANKS

> And futhermore, I am the one who has to find these zip codes...

No you don't, as long as you have the ability to spend money on software
and/or a database that does it for you.

We're using one of MaxMind's databases for exactly this purpose: mapping
DMAs to zip codes and then reporting aggregates under each DMA.  They have
free versions of the database too (just not as current / complete) and I
think they support web service calls for some of it too (but our volume
couldn't be supported by that).

It sounds like you need MSA and not DMA, though I confess I am not clear on
the differences.  So, assuming DMA is not appropriate, some other
alternatives, some of which are free:

http://www.zipdatafiles.com/data/
http://www.zipinfo.com/products/products.htm
http://www.zipcodeworld.com/zipcodepremium.htm
http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/...
oftware/
http://www.softjamboree.com/article...e-database.html
http://www.zip-codes.com/zip-code-database.asp

One of these will hopefully meet your requirements and budget.

A

You could also determine approximate ZIP code to MSA mappings using the U.S.
Census Bureau's free Tiger database online. Although the ZIP codes in the
Tiger database are actually "ZIP Code Tabulation Areas" and not true ZIP
codes.  This inaccuracy and the amount of work involved in downloading and
cleaning up the data would make me recommend buying a commercial product.