53033 FipsDecoder
02185 County FIPS Code

North Slope Borough

Alaska · County seat: Utqiagvik · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 02185 is North Slope Borough, Alaska. With a population of 10,924 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #9 in Alaska and #2414 nationally. The state FIPS code for Alaska is 02. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

02185

State FIPS

02

AK

Population

10,924

2022 ACS · #2414 nationally

Density

0.1/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

88,695

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Nonmetro — completely rural

RUCC 9

How This FIPS Code Works

02 185
02 = State FIPS (Alaska)
185 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 02185 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 02 (Alaska) with the 3-digit county identifier 185. Together they uniquely identify North Slope Borough in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 02185

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 02185.

Median Household Income

$83,472

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

7.9%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

36.3

ACS B01002_001E

Adjacent Counties (2)

Counties that share a border with North Slope Borough. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 02185.

Federal Datasets Using Code 02185

FIPS code 02185 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 02185 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 02185
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:185",
    "in":   "state:02",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [North Slope Borough, Alaska, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 02185
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '02185';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '02'
  AND county_fips = '185';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 2185 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 02185
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "02",
  county    = "185",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 02 (not 2) and 185 (not 185) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

ZIP Codes in North Slope Borough

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 North Slope Borough. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →

ZIP Code % in county
99519 100.0%
99721 100.0%
99723 100.0%
99734 100.0%
99747 100.0%
99759 100.0%
99766 100.0%
99782 100.0%
99789 100.0%
99791 100.0%

Other Counties in Alaska