Alachua County
Florida · County seat: Gainesville · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 12001 is Alachua County, Florida. With a population of 279,729 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #23 in Florida and #249 nationally. Alachua County is part of the Gainesville, FL. The state FIPS code for Florida is 12. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
12001
Population
279,729
2022 ACS · #249 nationally
Density
319.7/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
875
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 250K–1M population
RUCC 2
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 12001 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 12 (Florida) with the 3-digit county identifier 001. Together they uniquely identify Alachua County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 12001
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 12001.
Median Household Income
$57,566
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
20.2%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
31.7
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Alachua County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 12001.
Federal Datasets Using Code 12001
FIPS code 12001 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 12001 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:001",
"in": "state:12",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Alachua County, Florida, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '12001';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '12'
AND county_fips = '001';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 12001 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "12",
county = "001",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Alachua 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 Alachua County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 32641 | 100.0% |
| 32601 | 100.0% |
| 32603 | 100.0% |
| 32605 | 100.0% |
| 32606 | 100.0% |
| 32607 | 100.0% |
| 32608 | 100.0% |
| 32609 | 100.0% |
| 32610 | 100.0% |
| 32612 | 100.0% |
| 32615 | 100.0% |
| 32616 | 100.0% |
| 32694 | 100.0% |
| 32653 | 100.0% |
| 32631 | 100.0% |
| 32658 | 100.0% |
| 32669 | 83.3% |
| 32618 | 80.8% |
| 32640 | 57.1% |
| 32667 | 53.5% |
| 32643 | 52.4% |
| 32622 | 13.8% |
| 32666 | 12.6% |
| 32044 | 6.7% |