53033 FipsDecoder
08015 County FIPS Code

Chaffee County

Colorado · County seat: Salida · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 08015 is Chaffee County, Colorado. With a population of 19,564 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #26 in Colorado and #1898 nationally. The state FIPS code for Colorado is 08. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

08015

State FIPS

08

CO

Population

19,564

2022 ACS · #1898 nationally

Density

19.3/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

1,013

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Nonmetro — urban 2.5K–19.9K, adjacent to metro

RUCC 6

How This FIPS Code Works

08 015
08 = State FIPS (Colorado)
015 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 08015 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 08 (Colorado) with the 3-digit county identifier 015. Together they uniquely identify Chaffee County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 08015

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 08015.

Median Household Income

$65,703

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

11.8%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

47.8

ACS B01002_001E

Adjacent Counties (6)

Counties that share a border with Chaffee County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 08015.

Federal Datasets Using Code 08015

FIPS code 08015 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 08015 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 08015
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:015",
    "in":   "state:08",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Chaffee County, Colorado, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 08015
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '08015';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '08'
  AND county_fips = '015';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 8015 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 08015
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "08",
  county    = "015",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 08 (not 8) and 015 (not 15) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

ZIP Codes in Chaffee 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 Chaffee County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →

ZIP Code % in county
81227 100.0%
81236 100.0%
81242 100.0%
81211 100.0%
81228 100.0%
81201 84.4%
80449 2.5%

Other Counties in Colorado