53033 FipsDecoder
01081 County FIPS Code

Lee County

Alabama · County seat: Opelika · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 01081 is Lee County, Alabama. With a population of 175,126 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #8 in Alabama and #377 nationally. Lee County is part of the Auburn-Opelika, AL. The state FIPS code for Alabama is 01. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

01081

State FIPS

01

AL

Population

175,126

2022 ACS · #377 nationally

Density

288.3/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

608

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — under 250K population

RUCC 3

How This FIPS Code Works

01 081
01 = State FIPS (Alabama)
081 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 01081 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 01 (Alabama) with the 3-digit county identifier 081. Together they uniquely identify Lee County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 01081

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 01081.

Median Household Income

$59,288

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

18.5%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

33.0

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (6)

Counties that share a border with Lee County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 01081.

Federal Datasets Using Code 01081

FIPS code 01081 appears as the county identifier in the following federal datasets. Analysts joining data across these sources use this code as the common geographic key.

Using FIPS Code 01081 in Code

Common patterns for querying federal datasets by this county's FIPS code. The leading zeros are significant — always treat FIPS codes as strings, not integers.

Census ACS API — Python 01081
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:081",
    "in":   "state:01",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Lee County, Alabama, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 01081
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '01081';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '01'
  AND county_fips = '081';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 1081 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 01081
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "01",
  county    = "081",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 01 (not 1) and 081 (not 81) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

ZIP Codes in Lee County

ZIP codes do not align perfectly with county boundaries — a single ZIP code can span multiple counties, and a county can contain parts of many ZIP codes. The ratios below (from the Census 2020 ZCTA relationship file) show the land area share of each ZCTA that falls within Lee County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →

ZIP Code % in county
36865 100.0%
36849 100.0%
36877 99.9%
36832 96.9%
36874 94.7%
36801 78.1%
36804 77.9%
36870 64.1%
36830 55.6%
36879 46.2%
36854 41.6%
36852 39.5%
36867 33.7%
36850 10.1%
36866 8.9%

Other Counties in Alabama