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Description

COUNTYFIP identifies the county where the household was enumerated, using the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) coding scheme.

COUNTYFIP codes are state-dependent; they must be combined with state codes (see STATEFIP or STATEICP) to distinguish counties located in different states.

Like STATEFIP, COUNTYFIP facilitates merging IPUMS data with data from other sources that use FIPS codes.

Many county boundaries and some county names have changed over time. IPUMS does not impose a uniform county boundary system on the data, so each county listed for a given year in IPUMS should be assumed to have the boundaries that it had in that year.

FIPS codes were first instituted around the time of the 1970 census, so historical counties that were dissolved before then have no FIPS code. COUNTYICP and COUNTYNHG supply codes for the complete history of U.S. county definitions. These alternative variables both use codes based on the 3-digit FIPS scheme with a fourth digit added to distinguish historical counties.

Counties are not identified in public-use microdata from 1950 onwards, so IPUMS instead identifies counties, where possible, from other low-level geographic identifiers. These include State Economic Areas (SEA) in 1950; county groups in 1970 (CNTYGP97) and 1980 (CNTYGP98); and Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMA) from 1990 onwards, including Super-PUMAs (PUMASUPR) in 2000.

COUNTYFIP identifies a county if and only if:

  • it was coterminous with a single SEA, county group, or PUMA; or
  • it contained multiple SEAs, county groups, or PUMAs, none of which extended into other counties.
Listing of counties identified:

For municipios, the Puerto Rican statistical equivalent of U.S. counties, see PRCOUNTA (alphabetic version) and PRCOUNTY (numeric version).

Codes

COUNTYFIP is a 3-digit numeric variable that identifies the county where the household was enumerated using the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) coding scheme.

COUNTYFIP codes are state-dependent; they must be combined with state codes (see STATEFIP or STATEICP) to distinguish counties located in different states.

COUNTYFIP codes differ from standard FIPS codes in one case: Dade County, Florida, had FIPS code 025 until its name was changed to Miami-Dade County in 1997, with a new FIPS code of 086. COUNTYFIP assigns a code of 086 to Dade County in all samples to be consistent with the Miami-Dade code in later samples.

COUNTYFIP-Specific Variable Code
000 = County not identifiable from public-use data (1950-onward)*

*Counties are not identified in public-use microdata from 1950 onwards, so IPUMS instead identifies counties, where possible, from other low-level geographic identifiers.

Listing of counties identified in IPUMS USA samples, including FIPS and ICPSR codes:

Comparability

This variable is comparable across years, but county boundaries change over time.

Universe

  • 1950-onward: Households in publicly identifiable areas; not available for Puerto Rico.

Availability

United States
  • 2021: All samples
  • 2020: All samples
  • 2019: All samples
  • 2018: All samples
  • 2017: All samples
  • 2016: All samples
  • 2015: All samples
  • 2014: All samples
  • 2013: All samples
  • 2012: All samples
  • 2011: All samples
  • 2010: All samples
  • 2009: All samples
  • 2008: All samples
  • 2007: All samples
  • 2006: All samples
  • 2005: All samples
  • 2004: --
  • 2003: --
  • 2002: --
  • 2001: --
  • 2000: 5%; 1% old; 1% unwt; 1%
  • 1990: 5% state; 1% metro; 1% unwt
  • 1980: 5% state; 1% metro
  • 1970: 1% metro fm1; 1% metro fm2
  • 1960: 5%
  • 1950: All samples
  • 1940: --
  • 1930: --
  • 1920: --
  • 1910: --
  • 1900: --
  • 1880: --
  • 1870: --
  • 1860: --
  • 1850: --
Puerto Rico
  • 2021: --
  • 2020: --
  • 2019: --
  • 2018: --
  • 2017: --
  • 2016: --
  • 2015: --
  • 2014: --
  • 2013: --
  • 2012: --
  • 2011: --
  • 2010: --
  • 2009: --
  • 2008: --
  • 2007: --
  • 2006: --
  • 2005: --
  • 2000: --
  • 1990: --
  • 1980: --
  • 1970: --
  • 1930: --
  • 1920: --
  • 1910: --

Flags

This variable has no flags.

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.