Federal Information Processing Standard state code

FIPS state codes are two-digit numeric codes and two-letter alphabetic codes that represent the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the outlying areas of the United States, and associated areas. The codes are defined in U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) [http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip5-2.htm 5-2] (published May 28, 1987).

They are used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The codes were assigned by NIST and each uniquely identifies a state, the District of Columbia, or an outlying area of the U.S.. These codes are used by the U.S. Census Bureau, by the Department of Agriculture to form milk-processing plant numbers, some cash registers during check approval, and in the Emergency Alert System (EAS).

The FCC assigned additional numeric codes used with the EAS for territorial waters of the U.S., but these are not part of the FIPS standard.

The FIPS state alpha code for each U.S. states and the District of Columbia is identical to the postal abbreviations by the United States Postal Service. Since September 3, 1987, the same has been true of the alpha code for each of the outlying areas, with the exception of U.S. Minor Outlying Islands (UM) as the USPS routes mail for these islands indirectly.

Each of the various minor outlying islands that fall within alpha code UM has an individual numeric code, but no individual alpha code.

FIPS state codes

The following table enumerates the FIPS state alpha and numeric codes for the states, the District of Columbia, the outlying areas of the United States, the freely associated states, and trust territory, and FIPS state numeric codes for the individual minor outlying island territories.

Only actual U.S. states - plus the District of Columbia - have a FIPS state numeric code in the range 01 through 56. [http://www.bls.gov/nls/79quex/r19/y79r19attach102.pdf FIPS 5-1] (published November 1, 1963, and superseded by FIPS 5-2) stated that certain numeric codes "are reserved for possible future use in identifying American Samoa (03), Canal Zone (07), Guam (14), Puerto Rico (43), and Virgin Islands (52)", likely because these were considered possible new states Fact|date=January 2008. However, FIPS 5-2 does not remark on their omission at all. These areas are marked with a † in the table and highlighted in red.

For states, the column Status provides a link to a list of the counties (boroughs and census areas in Alaska; parishes in Louisiana) for that state (including their [http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip6-4.htm FIPS 6-4] /ANSI INCITS 31-1988 county codes). The listings of counties for other areas are set out at the end of this page.

ee also

List of FIPS region codes FIPS 10-4 international locations

External links

* [http://geonames.usgs.gov/ About GNIS]
* [http://geonames.usgs.gov/fips55.html FIPS55 Data including downloadable files containing the entire table]