Highlands County
Florida · County seat: Sebring · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 12055 is Highlands County, Florida. With a population of 102,339 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #36 in Florida and #592 nationally. Highlands County is part of the Sebring, 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
12055
Population
102,339
2022 ACS · #592 nationally
Density
100.7/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
1,017
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 12055 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 12 (Florida) with the 3-digit county identifier 055. Together they uniquely identify Highlands County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 12055
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 12055.
Median Household Income
$53,679
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
15.6%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
54.1
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Highlands County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 12055.
Federal Datasets Using Code 12055
FIPS code 12055 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 12055 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:055",
"in": "state:12",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Highlands County, Florida, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '12055';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '12'
AND county_fips = '055';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 12055 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "12",
county = "055",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Highlands 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 Highlands County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 33870 | 100.0% |
| 33852 | 100.0% |
| 33857 | 100.0% |
| 33876 | 100.0% |
| 33872 | 100.0% |
| 33875 | 100.0% |
| 33960 | 72.5% |
| 33825 | 67.7% |
| 34974 | 9.8% |