Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing

Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing, or TIGER, or TIGER/Line is a format used by the United States Census Bureau to describe physical and cultural features such as roads, highways, city limits, rivers, and lakes, as well as areas such as census tracts.

TIGER was developed to support and improve the Bureau's process of taking the Decennial Census.

GIS can be used to merge census demographics or other data sources with the TIGER files to create maps and conduct analysis.

[3] TIGER data published through February 2007 (2006 Second Edition) were in a custom text-based format formally known as TIGER/Line files.

This mismatch was not possible when the census TIGER files were available in ASCII format that was topological unlike shapefiles.