DMA® Regions

DMA data is essential for any marketer, researcher or organization seeking to use standardized geographic areas within their business.

DMA (Designated Market Area) regions are the geographic areas in the U.S. in which local television viewing is measured by Nielsen. 

A DMA region is a group of counties and zip codes that form an exclusive geographic area in which the home market television stations hold a dominance of total hours viewed.

There are 210 DMA regions, covering the entire continental U.S., Hawaii, and parts of Alaska. DMA boundaries and data are solely owned and exclusive to Nielsen.

Key Benefits

Target local advertising and direct marketing campaigns across channels and platforms

Sell advertising by local television market

Select local research samples

Segment and analyze internal and third-party data by local television market

Map locations by DMA region

DMA Data Reports

ZIP by DMA

The ZIP by DMA database provides ZIP code listings within U.S. counties by DMA region. The ZIP by DMA report is produced annually and consists of three sections:

  • Alphabetical sequence by DMA name
  • Numeric sequence by ZIP Code
  • 51,000+ zip codes

Data files for ZIP by DMA are available via Excel® and delivered via email

U.S. Television Household Estimates

  • Provides household population estimates for each DMA region
  • Data includes county-level data, county size designation, and TV penetration
  • Data file is available via PDF or Excel® format

DMA market and demographic rank

  • Provides population estimates for 31 demographic and household categories in each DMA region
  • Demographics are ranked by DMA penetration and alphabetically
  • Data file is available via PDF or Excel® format

Directory of TV stations

  • Provides a complete list of call letters, city of origin, network, and market affiliates for TV stations in North America by DMA region
  • Spanish-language TV stations are also listed
  • Does not include addresses of TV stations
  • Data file is available via PDF format only

DMA Shapefile

  • Provides the DMA boundaries in shapefile format for all 210 DMA regions
  • Allows user to visualize their own data by DMA region
  • Can be used to plot latitude/longitude by DMA region
  • Data file is available via shapefile format and delivered via email

DMA Map

  • Provides PDF map of DMA boundaries for all 210 DMA regions
  • Includes county boundaries
  • Data file is available via PDF format and delivered via email

Credit card payment option available.

Contact us

For more information on licensing Nielsen DMA data, please fill out the form.