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American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Codes

American National Standards Institute codes (ANSI codes) are standardized numeric or alphabetic codes issued by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities through all federal government agencies. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has taken over the management of geographic codes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Under NIST, the codes adhered to the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). ANSI now issues two types of codes. They continue to issue the commonly used FIPS codes, although the acronym has now changed to Federal Information Processing Series, because it is no longer considered the standard. They also issue the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Identifiers, which were established by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The Census Bureau also assigns and issues codes for a number of geographic entities for which FIPS or GNIS codes are not available, and sometimes in addition to FIPS and GNIS codes.

The majority of the tables included on this webpage provide the FIPS codes, but there are three exceptions. The American Indian Areas table provides codes assigned by the Census Bureau. The school district code tables provide the local education agency numbers assigned by the U.S. Department of Education and the voting district tables include codes assigned by the states.

The USGS provides a tool for searching the Geographic Names Information System for GNIS codes. It is linked to under "Other Resources" below.

Find Codes

Please select a link below to find codes for that entity type:

Other Resources

Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary County Divisions, and Other Locational Entities of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Outlying Areas Link to a non-federal Web site

  • Also known as INCITS 446-2008
  • To look up a code used by the Census Bureau (including Census and Civil codes), click on the link above and then click on "Search Domestic Names".
  • To download codes used by the Census Bureau (including Census and Civil codes), click on the link above, then click on "Download Domestic Names", and then go to "State Files with Federal Codes".

The U.S. Census Bureau uses the codes in INCITS 446-2008 to identify both legal and statistical entities for county subdivisions, places, and American Indian areas/Alaska Native areas/Hawaiian home lands. INCITS 446-2008 includes many more entity records than those for which the Census Bureau tabulates data. The INCITS 446-2008 codes are nation-based. American Indian reservations, off-reservation trust land areas, American Indian tribal subdivisions, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), state designated tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs), and/or tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs) in more than one state will have one INCITS 446-2008 code.

Historic FIPS Resources

Census 2000 FIPS 55 Codes Link to a non-federal Web site

1990 FIPS 55 Codes Link to a non-federal Web site


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Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Geography | (301) 763-1128 |  Last Revised: July 27, 2015