Howard County
Arkansas · County seat: Nashville · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 05061 is Howard County, Arkansas. With a population of 12,779 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #54 in Arkansas and #2288 nationally. The state FIPS code for Arkansas is 05. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
05061
Population
12,779
2022 ACS · #2288 nationally
Density
21.7/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
589
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — rural, adjacent to metro
RUCC 8
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 05061 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 05 (Arkansas) with the 3-digit county identifier 061. Together they uniquely identify Howard County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 05061
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 05061.
Median Household Income
$44,824
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
18.3%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
39.7
ACS B01002_001E
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Howard County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 05061.
Federal Datasets Using Code 05061
FIPS code 05061 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 05061 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.
import requests
url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
"get": "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
"for": "county:061",
"in": "state:05",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Howard County, Arkansas, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '05061';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '05'
AND county_fips = '061';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 5061 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "05",
county = "061",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Howard 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 Howard County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 71851 | 100.0% |
| 71833 | 90.3% |
| 71971 | 83.5% |
| 71831 | 81.3% |
| 71852 | 62.9% |
| 71959 | 49.9% |
| 71973 | 37.2% |
| 71859 | 17.8% |
| 71838 | 0.1% |