Maine Geographic Codes for Minor Civil Divisions

By Dan Walters and David Kirouac

The Maine Geocodes were developed by the State Planning Office and were adopted by the Governor in July, 1971 as a method of providing a unique identifier (a unique number) for minor civil divisions (cities, towns, reservations, etc.) within the state. Over time, some agencies have adopted changes as they have occurred, while other state agencies have not adopted the changes. As a result, there were different versions of the Geocodes used within state government.

The Geocode is a 5-digit number that consists of a 2-digit county number (this is a federal code) followed by a 3-digit code that refers to the minor civil division (example: the code for Kennebec County is 11 and the Geocode for Augusta is 11020). There are federal codes for minor civil divisions (from the Bureau of the Census) but they vary greatly from the state codes because the federal codes do not recognize townships.

County Codes

1 - Androscoggin

03 - Aroostook

5 - Cumberland

7 - Franklin

9 - Hancock

11 - Kennebec

13 - Knox

15 - Lincoln

19 - Penobscot

21 - Piscataquis

23 - Sagadahoc

25 - Somerset

27 - Waldo

29 - Washington

31 - York

A status code (or letter code) is associated with each place name to indicate the type of minor civil division.

C = City

V = Village

T = Town

L = Location or Settlement

P = Plantation

A = Alternate Name

R = Reservation

U = Unorganized Township

The Maine GIS Technical Committee formed a subcommittee to 1) develop procedures governing the current use of the codes, and 2) prevent creation of nonstandard Geocodes in the future. The Committee initiated this study because of the widespread use of the codes in computer systems, including geographic information systems. Based upon reports from the GIS Technical Committee, the GIS Executive Council recommends that the following policies be adopted by the Information Services Policy Board:

1. All state agencies will use the standard geographic codes adopted on July 1, 1971 to identify Maine minor civil divisions in databases, geospatial databases, spreadsheets and other computer based data storage and analysis systems. Four new geographic codes will be added to the 1971 list to identify the towns of Frye Island (05085), Long Island (05125), Muscle Ridge Shoals Township (13803), and Islands of Moosehead Lake (21000) which were either formed or recognized after 1971.
2. The Maine Office of GIS will be responsible for implementing, maintaining, and providing information about any version changes as follows:

1. Maintain and provide access to a database relating the geographic code with the town name and official status (i.e., city, town, plantation, reservations, unorganized township).
2. The status code will be changed to reflect changes in minor civil division status without changing the geographic code (i.e., the geographic code will never change).
3. New minor civil divisions will be assigned geographic codes based upon the existing protocol, if possible. Using the "reserved" numbers will maintain the correspondence between a numerical sort and alphabetical order within county.
4. If a minor civil division is legislated out of existence, the Geocode will be retired and tracked in related history databases.

The subcommittee continues to meet to evaluate other aspects of the Geocodes. The Geocodes database has been added to the BIS (Bureau of Information Services) Oracle server and is available for distribution. For more information on the process of accessing the Oracle server contact Jim Lopatosky at Jim.Lopatosky@state.me.us or 624-9410. The Geocodes database will also be made available for download from the GIS News section of the Maine Office of GIS website http://apollo.ogis.state.me.us/news/news.htm