FIPS county code - Definition and Overview

FIPS county codes are a Federal Information Processing Standard for five-digit codes used to uniquely identify counties and county equivalents in the United States, certain U.S. possessions, and certain freely associated states. The first two digits are the FIPS state code and the last three are the county code within the state or possession.

County FIPS codes in the United States are usually (with a few exceptions) in the same sequence as alphabetized county names within the state. They are usually (but not always) odd numbers, so that new or changed county names can be fit in their alphebetical sequence slot.

Lists of state and county FIPS codes for the United States can be found at http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/codes/state.html[1] (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/codes/state.html) http://www.census.gov/geo/www/fips/fips65/download.html[2] (http://www.census.gov/geo/www/fips/fips65/download.html)