U.S. Postsecondary Institution Geographic Locations

United States point location data for postsecondary institutions, developed annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The dataset contains latitude and longitude coordinates for all institutions reported in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), with collections available from the 2015-16 to 2022-23 academic years.

Use Cases

• Map institution density and distribution using latitude and longitude coordinates for spatial analysis.
• Analyze geographic access to postsecondary education by calculating distances between institution points and population centers.
• Integrate point locations with other IPEDS data on enrollments or finances for institution-level geospatial studies.
• Track changes in the postsecondary landscape by comparing point locations across annual collections from 2015-16 to 2022-23.

Strengths

• Data is produced by the authoritative National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
• Annual updates provide a multi-year series from the 2015-16 to 2022-23 academic years.
• Point locations are derived from the comprehensive IPEDS directory, which includes all institutions participating in federal student aid programs.

Limitations

• The specific number of institution records (rows) and available attributes (columns) per record is not provided in the input.
• Data is limited to the United States and its territories, with no international coverage.
• Location accuracy is dependent on the address information reported in IPEDS, which may not reflect precise campus boundaries.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Academic years 2015-16 through 2022-23 (collections are listed for each year).

Freshness

Updated annually; the metadata was last updated in October 2024.

Geography

United States (postsecondary institutions participating in federal student aid programs).