U.S. College and University Campuses with Population Threshold
by United States Department of Energy. Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory / ICPSR Harvested Dataverse·Updated 4mo ago
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Description
Encompassing geospatial features for post-secondary education campuses in the United States, including those with a POPULATION value of 500 or more and a subset of smaller campuses. It covers Doctoral/Research Universities, Masters Colleges, Baccalaureate Colleges, Associates Colleges, and other specialized institutions across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories. The data is derived from Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) sources and was updated with 21 new records and the removal of 88 obsolete records.
Use Cases
Analyze the geographic distribution of campuses by institution type (e.g., Doctoral/Research Universities, Tribal colleges) across states and territories.
Map campus locations and filter them based on the POPULATION attribute to identify large educational hubs.
Cross-reference this dataset with the related Supplemental Colleges and Colleges and Universities feature classes for enhanced attribution analysis.
Strengths
Covers all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories, providing national scope.
Includes a defined subset of campuses with a POPULATION value under 500 or equal to -999, offering data on smaller institutions.
Data maintenance is documented, with 21 new records added and 88 obsolete records removed in this release.
Limitations
Online institutions and colleges without verifiable campus maps are excluded, limiting coverage of digital or non-traditional education providers.
The specific row count, column schema, and sample data are unavailable, hindering initial assessment of dataset scale and structure.
Attribution is derived from other HIFLD feature classes, requiring users to consult separate metadata for complete field definitions.
Provenance
Source
United States Department of Energy. Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, via ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.
Collection Method
Aggregated and derived from the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) Colleges and Universities and Supplemental Colleges point feature classes/shapefiles.
Freshness
Last updated on 2026-02-23, sourced from an archive of the HIFLD Open GIS repository deactivated on August 26, 2025.
Geography
All 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories.
The dataset is archived from the deactivated HIFLD Open GIS repository. Users must refer to the 'Entities and Attributes' metadata section and the source feature classes' metadata for complete field information. The data does not have a relationship class but is related to Supplemental Colleges and Colleges and Universities datasets.