53033 FipsDecoder
12049 County FIPS Code

Hardee County

Florida · County seat: Wauchula · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 12049 is Hardee County, Florida. With a population of 25,528 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #52 in Florida and #1616 nationally. 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

12049

State FIPS

12

FL

Population

25,528

2022 ACS · #1616 nationally

Density

40.0/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

638

sq miles

Urban/Rural

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

RUCC 6

How This FIPS Code Works

12 049
12 = State FIPS (Florida)
049 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 12049 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 12 (Florida) with the 3-digit county identifier 049. Together they uniquely identify Hardee County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 12049

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 12049.

Median Household Income

$44,665

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

28.5%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

35.2

ACS B01002_001E

Adjacent Counties (5)

Counties that share a border with Hardee County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 12049.

Federal Datasets Using Code 12049

FIPS code 12049 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 12049 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 12049
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:049",
    "in":   "state:12",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Hardee County, Florida, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 12049
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '12049';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '12'
  AND county_fips = '049';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 12049 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 12049
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "12",
  county    = "049",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 12 (not 12) and 049 (not 49) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
33873 100.0%
33890 100.0%
33865 97.0%
33834 70.6%

Other Counties in Florida