53033 FipsDecoder
02188 County FIPS Code

Northwest Arctic Borough

Alaska · County seat: Kotzebue · Active county or equivalent

View on CensusDepth ↗

FIPS code 02188 is Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska. With a population of 7,682 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #13 in Alaska and #2669 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

02188

State FIPS

02

AK

Population

7,682

2022 ACS · #2669 nationally

Density

0.2/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

35,573

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Nonmetro — completely rural

RUCC 9

How This FIPS Code Works

02 188
02 = State FIPS (Alaska)
188 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 02188 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 02 (Alaska) with the 3-digit county identifier 188. Together they uniquely identify Northwest Arctic Borough in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 02188

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 02188.

Median Household Income

$77,647

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

18.5%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

29.2

ACS B01002_001E

Adjacent Counties (3)

Counties that share a border with Northwest Arctic Borough. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 02188.

Federal Datasets Using Code 02188

FIPS code 02188 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 02188 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 02188
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:188",
    "in":   "state:02",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 02188
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '02188';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '02'
  AND county_fips = '188';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 2188 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 02188
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "02",
  county    = "188",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 02 (not 2) and 188 (not 188) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

ZIP Codes in Northwest Arctic 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 Northwest Arctic Borough. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →

ZIP Code % in county
99727 100.0%
99736 100.0%
99749 100.0%
99750 100.0%
99751 100.0%
99752 100.0%
99761 100.0%
99763 100.0%
99770 100.0%
99773 100.0%
99786 100.0%

Other Counties in Alaska