U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Data Element: STATE NUMERIC CODE
You are invited to read the definitions of terms used in this data standard.
Name |
State Numeric Code |
Description |
Unique two-digit Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) numeric codes for representing the 50 States, the District of Columbia and the outlying areas of the United States, and associated areas. |
Type |
Character Field (to allow leading zeros in this data field when required) |
Syntax |
NN, where each N represents a number from 0 through 9. |
Recommended Field Name | STATECODE |
Values |
The values to be used for this data element are described in the reference and are current as of the date shown on the last FIPS PUBLICATION CHANGE NOTICE issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). |
Source |
An electronic copy of the values to be used for the 50 States, the
District of Columbia, the outlying areas of the United States (American Samoa, Guam,
Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, and Virgin Islands),
the freely associated states (Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands), and
the trust territory of Palau is available here in ASCII (.txt)
format. These values are current as of January 21, 2003. An electronic copy of the values to be used for the individual island territories (which form the aggregate entity U.S. Minor Outlying Islands) is also available here in ASCII (.txt) format. This file should be used only when an individual territory must be uniquely identified, and a field for the FIPS County Code is not available to be used in combination with the FIPS State Code for U.S. Minor Outlying Islands (74 or UM). A FIPS County Code for each territory is specified in FIPS PUB 6-4. A self-extracting ZIP file (states_rev1.exe, 107 kb) is available here for download. This file contains the two ASCII .txt files described above, as well as electronic copies of these values in Access (.mdb) format. To access the contents of the self-extracting ZIP file, download the file and double-click on the file to run the self extractor. Specify the location where you want the files stored (e.g., C:\Temp), and click Unzip to extract and unzip the files. Some browsers may require the user to right-click on the hyperlink text with the mouse, left-click on "Select Target As" or "Save Link As" from the dialog box menu, and save the zipped file to the appropriate user directory. Related information is also available. For electronic copies of codes for named populated places, primary county divisions (such as townships and census county divisions), American Indian and Alaska Native areas, and several kinds of facilities, visit the Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 55-3, 1994 December 28, "Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary County Divisions, and Other Locational Entities of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Outlying Areas." Flat ASCII files, zip files, tar files, and text files of the FIPS 55 codes for the 50 States, Washington, D.C., and nine outlying areas are available for download or printing from this site. Important Notice: On February 8, 2005, the NIST announced the withdrawal of 17 FIPS Publications in Federal Register, Volume 70, No. 25 (70 FR 6623) , including FIPS 55-3, Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary County Divisions, and Other Locational Entities of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Outlying Areas. These FIPS are being withdrawn because they are obsolete, or have not been updated to adopt current voluntary industry standards, current federal data standards, or current good practices for information security. Work is underway to redesign or transform several of the withdrawn FIPS standards for review and acceptance as ANSI-accredited standards, but it will be a lengthy process. The existing FIPS 55 guideline is being redesigned by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to use the feature identifier (ID) codes from the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which never change. The GNIS is the Nation's official geographic names repository and has been designated by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names as the only source of geographic names and locative attributes for use by the Federal Government and its contractors. This new proposed standard will be submitted for approval and accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Refer to the FIPS 55 PUBLICATION CHANGE NOTICE, effective January 1, 2006, for USGS contact information and details on the proposed standard. |
Historical Data | Previous versions of the data standard and
source data are available here:
Revision 1 The initial data standard and source data is available here: State Numeric Code |
Reference(s) |
Part 270, FW 6, Data Management and Standards, dated September 30, 2002. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 5-2, 1987 May 28, "Codes for the Identification of the States, the District of Columbia and the Outlying Areas of the United States, and Associated Areas." FIPS PUB 5-2 also contains unique numeric codes for the individual island territories which form the aggregate entity, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. FIPS 55 PUBLICATION CHANGE NOTICE, effective January 1, 2006. |
Use Instructions |
As of the approval date, this data element will be used in any new
automated system, data set, database, or information application, including new Geographic
Information System (GIS) data and applications. This data element will also be used in any
major modifications to existing systems or versions of these data-related items that use
numeric codes to uniquely identify the 50 States, the District of Columbia, outlying areas
of the United States (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Minor Outlying Islands, and Virgin Islands), the freely associated states (Federated
States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands), and the trust territory of Palau. To ensure compliance with the Service Information and Technology Architecture (SITA), Service staff are strongly encouraged to utilize this data element in existing systems, data sets, databases, and information applications. Where existing systems and data-related items are not in compliance, they should be modified to achieve compatibility and implement this data standard. State numeric codes, State names, and the two-letter State alphabetic codes will be handled as separate data fields in any new or modified automated system, and will not be combined in a single data field. |
Phase |
Adopted |
Approval Date |
July 13, 1999 |
Validation Date |
January 24, 2006 |
Data Steward |
Barbara White, National Data Administrator, Branch of Data and Systems Services, Division of Information Technology Management |
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Keywords=state, United States, outlying area, island, possession,
territory, FIPS, data, standards, elements
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