Current U.S. Postsecondary Institution Geographic Locations

NCES EDGE program provides annually updated geographic point locations for all postsecondary institutions participating in federal student aid programs. The data is derived from the IPEDS directory and includes latitude and longitude coordinates for mapping and spatial analysis. Collections are available for multiple academic years, with the most current file representing the 2022-23 period.

Use Cases

• Map institution density and distribution across the United States using latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Analyze spatial accessibility to postsecondary education by calculating distances between school points and population centers.
• Join point location data with other IPEDS variables like enrollments or finances for geospatial analysis of institutional characteristics.
• Visualize the geographic footprint of the federal student aid system by plotting all reported institution locations.

Strengths

• Data is updated annually by the authoritative National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
• Point locations are developed for all institutions reported in the comprehensive IPEDS system.
• Multiple data formats are available, including GeoJSON, KML, and CSV, for various analytical tools.
• Collections are available for at least eight consecutive academic years, from 2015-16 to 2022-23.

Limitations

• The specific number of rows (institutions) and columns (attributes) per record is not provided in the input.
• Point locations are derived from reported address information, which may contain inaccuracies or lack precise geocoding.
• The dataset likely only includes institutions that participate in federal student aid programs, excluding others.

Provenance

Source

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program.

Collection Method

Point locations are developed from address information in the annually updated IPEDS directory file.

Time Range

Multiple academic years available, with the most current being 2022-23. Historical collections date back to at least 2015-16.

Freshness

Updated annually; last metadata update was May 23, 2024, with the most current collection for 2022-23.

Geography

United States (institutions participating in federal student aid programs under the Higher Education Act).