Palo Alto County
Iowa · County seat: Emmetsburg · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 19147 is Palo Alto County, Iowa. With a population of 8,938 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #82 in Iowa and #2561 nationally. The state FIPS code for Iowa is 19. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
19147
Population
8,938
2022 ACS · #2561 nationally
Density
15.9/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
564
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — completely rural
RUCC 9
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 19147 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 19 (Iowa) with the 3-digit county identifier 147. Together they uniquely identify Palo Alto County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 19147
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 19147.
Median Household Income
$67,306
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
10.7%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
41.3
ACS B01002_001E
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Palo Alto County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 19147.
Federal Datasets Using Code 19147
FIPS code 19147 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 19147 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:147",
"in": "state:19",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Palo Alto County, Iowa, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '19147';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '19'
AND county_fips = '147';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 19147 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "19",
county = "147",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 50527 | 100.0% |
| 50528 | 100.0% |
| 50536 | 100.0% |
| 50562 | 92.9% |
| 50515 | 76.7% |
| 51342 | 66.0% |
| 51358 | 64.2% |
| 50597 | 55.4% |
| 50598 | 29.9% |
| 50539 | 22.3% |
| 50554 | 11.9% |
| 50578 | 10.5% |
| 50581 | 8.1% |
| 50546 | 4.7% |