Federal Information Processing Standard state code

FIPS state codes are a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code (FIPS 5-2) for geographic coding of human settlements in the United States. They are used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and are also used in this wiki. The current standard is FIPS 55-3. Each two-digit code uniquely identifies a state, territory, or commonwealth within or 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, and were assigned by NIST. Additional numbers used with the EAS for territorial waters of the U.S. were assigned by the FCC, but are not part of the FIPS standard. Two-letter state codes are used as postal abbreviations by the United States Postal Service with the exception of UM which it does not use. The various minor outlying islands have a second two digit code besides the one used for them as a group.

Please note that FIPS codes are not the same thing as ZIP Codes, but the two-letter abbreviations for U.S. states are the same as the Postal Service state abbreviations. Currently, actual "states" of the United States are (with the exception of number 11, District of Columbia), those entries with a FIPS code of 01 to 56.

The column "Counties in this state" provides a link to a list of the counties (boroughs and census areas in Alaska; parishes in Louisiana) for that state. The listing of counties for areas other than states are listed below on this page.

Codes 03, 07, 14, 43, and 52 in the above table were formerly used for certain territories, but some users found it difficult to separate them out from the States as a result so they were reassigned codes higher up in the system. Currently, actual "states" of the United States are (with the exception of number 11, District of Columbia), those entries with a FIPS code of 01 through 56.

The following codes for maritime areas are used by the Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weatherradio and are unlikely to be used otherwise by FIPS.