postgis_tiger_geocoder

postgis : PostGIS tiger geocoder and reverse geocoder

Overview

ID	Extension	Package	Version	Category	License	Language
1504	postgis_tiger_geocoder	postgis	`3.6.2`	GIS	GPL-2.0	C

Attribute	Has Binary	Has Library	Need Load	Has DDL	Relocatable	Trusted
--s-dt-	No	Yes	No	Yes	no	yes

Relationships
Schemas	`tiger`
Requires	postgis fuzzystrmatch
See Also	pgrouting pointcloud pointcloud_postgis h3 h3_postgis q3c ogr_fdw geoip
Siblings	postgis postgis_topology postgis_raster postgis_sfcgal address_standardizer address_standardizer_data_us

Packages

Type	Repo	Version	PG Major Compatibility	Package Pattern	Dependencies
EXT	PGDG	`3.6.2`	18 17 16 15 14	`postgis`	`postgis`, `fuzzystrmatch`
RPM	PGDG	`3.6.2`	18 17 16 15 14	`postgis36_$v`	-
DEB	PGDG	`3.6.2`	18 17 16 15 14	`postgresql-$v-postgis-3`	-

Linux / PG	PG18	PG17	PG16	PG15	PG14
el8.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1
el8.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1	PGDG 3.6.1
el9.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
el9.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
el10.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
el10.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
d12.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
d12.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
d13.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
d13.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
u22.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
u22.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
u24.x86_64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2
u24.aarch64	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2	PGDG 3.6.2

Source

Repository

git.osgeo.org/gitea/postgis/postgis

Install

Make sure PGDG repo available:

pig repo add pgdg -u    # add pgdg repo and update cache

Install this extension with pig:

pig install postgis;		# install via package name, for the active PG version
pig install postgis_tiger_geocoder;		# install by extension name, for the current active PG version

pig install postgis_tiger_geocoder -v 18;   # install for PG 18
pig install postgis_tiger_geocoder -v 17;   # install for PG 17
pig install postgis_tiger_geocoder -v 16;   # install for PG 16
pig install postgis_tiger_geocoder -v 15;   # install for PG 15
pig install postgis_tiger_geocoder -v 14;   # install for PG 14

Create this extension with:

CREATE EXTENSION postgis_tiger_geocoder CASCADE; -- requires postgis, fuzzystrmatch

Usage

PostGIS TIGER Geocoder: US Census TIGER/Line geocoding for PostGIS

The PostGIS TIGER Geocoder provides geocoding and reverse geocoding capabilities for US addresses using US Census TIGER/Line data. It can parse an address string into a normalized form, find the geographic coordinates, and reverse-geocode coordinates back to an address.

TIGER Geocoder Reference

Setup

CREATE EXTENSION postgis_tiger_geocoder CASCADE;

This creates the tiger schema with the geocoder tables and functions.

Loading TIGER Data

Before geocoding, TIGER/Line data must be loaded for the states you need. The extension provides helper functions to generate the loading scripts:

-- Generate a script to download and load data for a state
-- (e.g., Massachusetts = 'MA')
SELECT loader_generate_script(ARRAY['MA'], 'sh');

This generates a shell script that uses shp2pgsql to load TIGER shapefiles. Run the generated script to populate the tiger_data schema with address ranges, edges, faces, and other data.

After loading:

-- Install missing indexes for performance
SELECT install_missing_indexes();

-- Update statistics
ANALYZE tiger.addr;
ANALYZE tiger.edges;
ANALYZE tiger.faces;

Geocoding

Convert a US address string to geographic coordinates:

-- Basic geocoding
SELECT g.rating, ST_X(g.geomout) AS lon, ST_Y(g.geomout) AS lat,
       pprint_addy(g.addy) AS address
FROM geocode('1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500') AS g;

The rating indicates match quality (lower is better, 0 = exact match).

-- Geocode with a limit on results
SELECT g.rating, ST_AsText(g.geomout), pprint_addy(g.addy)
FROM geocode('100 Main St, Boston, MA', 3) AS g;

-- Batch geocode from a table
SELECT a.id, g.rating, g.geomout, pprint_addy(g.addy)
FROM addresses a, LATERAL geocode(a.address_string, 1) AS g;

Reverse Geocoding

Convert coordinates back to a street address:

SELECT pprint_addy(r.addy[1]) AS address
FROM reverse_geocode(ST_SetSRID(ST_MakePoint(-77.0365, 38.8977), 4326)) AS r;

Address Normalization

Parse and normalize address strings without geocoding:

SELECT *
FROM normalize_address('1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500');

Returns components: address (number), predirAbbrev, streetName, streetTypeAbbrev, postdirAbbrev, internal, location (city), stateAbbrev, zip, parsed.

-- Pretty-print a normalized address
SELECT pprint_addy(normalize_address('100 main street boston ma 02101'));

Configuration

The tiger.geocode_settings table controls geocoder behavior:

-- View current settings
SELECT * FROM tiger.geocode_settings;

-- Adjust settings (e.g., increase debug level)
UPDATE tiger.geocode_settings SET val = 'true' WHERE name = 'debug_geocode_address';

Last updated on 2026-03-12

postgis_sfcgal address_standardizer