Sub-State Region Geo-codes for the United States

By Tom (Thomas J.) Christoffel

December 27, 2007

Introduction

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Codes are used for data processing in the U.S. The system began its official life with the first FIPS publication on November 1, 1968. FIPS PUB 5-2 includes codes for States, the District of Columbia and outlying areas. FIPS PUB 6-4 covers counties and equivalent entities. More information can be found on-line at http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/index.htm.

The objectives of these standards: “...are to improve the utilization of data resources of the Federal Government and to avoid unnecessary duplication and incompatibilities in the collection, processing, and dissemination of data.” FIPS codes are geocodes, however they are assigned based on alphabetic name and not the geographic relationship between States or Counties within a State.

This feature makes it easy to find data about a named locality in a list, however it makes it difficult to easily compare adjoining jurisdictions. Often, these may be unknown to the researcher.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the numbered system of Planning Districts was used to aggregate local data in State reports. It was my assumption that these were FIPS Codes. Some time in the 1980’s I was informed that wasn’t the case, it was simply a data sorting benefit derived from the Virginia system which, by Executive Order 16 in 1973, required that State Agencies use the Planning District geography in development of any sub-state districts.

The A-95 Intergovernmental Review process learned that many states did not have a complete system

Census Region States Number - Region Name Number for North-South Geo-code - State (FIPS Code)

1 - Northeast01 – Maine (23)02 - New Hampshire (33)03 - Vermont (50)04 - Massachusetts (25)05 - Rhode Island (44)06 - Connecticut (9)07 - New York (36) 08 - New Jersey (34)09 – Pennsylvania (42)

2 - South10 – Delaware (10) 11 - Maryland (24)12 - District of Columbia (11) 13 – Virginia (51) 14 - West Virginia (54) 15 - North Carolina (37)16 - South Carolina (45) 17 – Georgia (13) 18 - Florida (12)19 - Kentucky (21)

20 - Tennessee (47)21 - Alabama (1)22 - Mississippi (28)23 - Arkansas (5)24 - Louisiana (22)25 – Oklahoma (40) 26 - Texas (48)

3 - Midwest27 - Michigan (26)28 – Ohio (39) 29 – Indiana (18)30 - Illinois (17)31 - Wisconsin (55)32 – Minnesota (27)33 - North Dakota (38)34 - South Dakota (46)35 - Iowa (19)36 - Nebraska (31)37 - Missouri (29)38 - Kansas (20)

4 - West39 - Montana (30)40 - Wyoming (56)41 - Idaho (16)42 – Nevada (32) 43 - Utah (49)44 - Colorado (8) 45 - New Mexico (35)46 - Arizona (4)47 - Alaska (2)48 - Washington (53)49 - Oregon (41) 50 - California (6)51 - Hawaii (15)

document.doc Created on 6/11/2005 11:07:00 AM Created by Tom Christoffel