Frequently Asked Questions on the Low-Income-Designated Area Workbook

There are at least two ways a credit union can use the information in this workbook.

• To further its low-income outreach by specifically targeting potential new members residing in one of the low-income designated geographic areas within the field of membership.
• To monitor how many existing or potential new members reside within a low-income geographic area.

The workbook has five worksheets. There are worksheets for each of the four geographic areas (county, census tract, census block group and zip code), and one that identifies which counties fall within a core-based statistical area (CBSA):

• County/Census Tract/Census Block Group — These worksheets each contain information for the following applicable categories:
  • Federal Information Processing Standard state code
  • Federal Information Processing Standard county code
  • State abbreviation
  • County name
  • Census tract number
  • Census block group number

A Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code is a unique number that identifies a state and a county or its equivalents. A state code is two digits and a county code is three digits.  For example, there is an 11 digit unique FIPS code assigned to each census tract. FIPS Code 48-201-533701 means it is located in Harris County, Texas. The 48 (first two digits) is the FIPS code for Texas, the 201 (next three digits) is the FIPS code for Harris County, and the 533701 (next six digits) identifies the specific census tract located in Harris County, Texas.

A core-based statistical area (CBSA) is a U.S. geographic area defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that consists of one or more counties (or equivalents) anchored by an urban center of at least 10,000 people, plus adjacent counties that are socioeconomically tied to the urban center by commuting. A CBSA is the FIPS metropolitan area code.

In the CBSA worksheet, there is a list of the counties within each CBSA code. This information will assist in determining if a zip code qualifies that has a conditional “Yes” response.

Any resident of that county that is or becomes a member of the credit union will count towards the credit union qualifying for the NCUA’s low-income designation.

Any resident of that census tract that is or becomes a member of the credit union will count towards the credit union qualifying for the NCUA’s low-income designation.

Any resident of that census block group that is or becomes a member of the credit union will count towards the credit union qualifying for the NCUA’s low-income designation.