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Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Definitions:

Federal information processing standards codes (FIPS codes) are a standardized set of numeric or alphabetic codes issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities through all federal government agencies. The entities covered include: states and statistically equivalent entities, counties and statistically equivalent entities, named populated and related location entities (such as, places and county subdivisions), and American Indian and Alaska Native areas.

More Information:

The NIST maintains a Web site of FIPS codes and information. FIPS publications include:

  • FIPS PUB 5-2, Codes for the Identification of the States, the District of Columbia and the Outlying Areas of the United States, and Associated Areas
  • FIPS PUB 6-4, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the U. S., Its Possessions, and Associated Areas
  • FIPS PUB 6-5, Lookup Counties and Equivalent Entities of the U.S., Puerto Rico and Island Areas
  • FIPS PUB 8-6, Metropolitan Areas (Including MSAs, CMSAs, PMSAs, and NECMAs)
  • FIPS PUB 9-1, Congressional Districts of the U.S.
  • FIPS PUB 55-3, Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary County Divisions, and Other Locational Entities of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Outlying Areas.

    The U.S. Census Bureau uses the codes in FIPS PUB 55-3 to identify both legal and statistical entities for county subdivisions, places, and American Indian areas/Alaska Native areas/Hawaiian home lands. FIPS PUB 55-3 includes many more entity records than those for which the Census Bureau tabulates data. The FIPS 55 codes are state-based. American Indian reservations, off-reservation trust land areas, American Indian tribal subdivisions, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), state designated American Indian statistical areas (SDAISAs), and/or tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs) in more than one state will have multiple FIPS 55 codes; that is, a different FIPS 55 code for each state portion of the single American Indian entity.