About QuickWhere
QuickWhere is an independent geography and location reference website that answers everyday U.S. and global location questions—such as what county, city, state, ZIP Code area, or time zone you are in right now—using authoritative federal boundary datasets and standard geodetic formulas.
Why We Built QuickWhere
Postal mailing addresses, GPS coordinates, and legal government jurisdictions frequently disagree. A home with an Atlanta, Miami, or Las Vegas mailing address may sit outside the incorporated city limits or even in a neighboring county; a 5-digit ZIP Code can cross two or three counties; and thirteen U.S. states split across multiple statutory time zones. QuickWhere brings these boundary layers together in fast, mobile-friendly tools that explain both the answer and the data behind it.
Authoritative Public Data Sources
Every lookup, table, and printable map on QuickWhere is built from public-domain federal records and open cartographic datasets:
- U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder & TIGER/Line (
Public_AR_Current/Current_Current): Provides street-segment address geocoding, current county and state boundaries (3,144 U.S. county-equivalents across 50 states and D.C., plus U.S. territories), 19,729 incorporated places, 12,913 Census Designated Places, county subdivisions, 119th Congressional Districts, state legislative districts, and public school districts. - U.S. Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA Relationship & Gazetteer Files: Powers our 33,791 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area centroids (
tab20_zcta520_county20_natl.txtand2020_Gaz_zcta_national.txt) and multi-county land area share percentages, with Connecticut’s 2022 transition from 8 legacy counties to 9 Planning Regions mapped via official County Subdivision relationships. - U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 3D Elevation Program (3DEP): Supplies bare-earth terrain elevation in feet and meters via the National Map Elevation Point Query Service.
- U.S. Department of Transportation (NTAD) & IANA
tzdb: Defines official U.S. statutory time zone boundaries (49 CFR Part 71) and historical Daylight Saving Time rules. - Natural Earth (1:50m) & Wikidata (CC0): Provides global country and land polygons (
ne_50m_admin_0_countries,ne_50m_land) and verified county seats and official county government URLs.
Geodetic and Astronomical Formulas
Coordinate conversions between Decimal Degrees (DD), Degrees-Minutes-Seconds (DMS), Degrees Decimal Minutes (DDM), and Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) use the WGS84 (EPSG:4326) ellipsoid with Karney–Krüger transverse Mercator series (a = 6378137 m, f = 1/298.257223563). Great-circle distances, midpoints, and spherical polygon areas use the IUGG mean Earth radius (R = 6371.0088 km), and solar events follow the NOAA Solar Calculator equations (zenith = 90.833° for sunrise/sunset, 96° for civil twilight).
Independence and Privacy
QuickWhere is an independent reference project and is not affiliated with the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Postal Service, USGS, or any government agency. Read our Privacy Policy or Frequently Asked Questions to learn how we protect your location data.