Kenton County
Kentucky · County seat: Covington · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 21117 is Kenton County, Kentucky. With a population of 169,066 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #3 in Kentucky and #392 nationally. Kenton County is part of the Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN. The state FIPS code for Kentucky is 21. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
21117
Population
169,066
2022 ACS · #392 nationally
Density
1,055.0/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
160
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 1M+ population
RUCC 1
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 21117 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 21 (Kentucky) with the 3-digit county identifier 117. Together they uniquely identify Kenton County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 21117
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 21117.
Median Household Income
$76,016
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
11.9%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
37.7
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (5)
Counties that share a border with Kenton County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 21117.
Federal Datasets Using Code 21117
FIPS code 21117 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 21117 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:117",
"in": "state:21",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Kenton County, Kentucky, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '21117';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '21'
AND county_fips = '117';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 21117 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "21",
county = "117",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Kenton 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 Kenton County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 41063 | 100.0% |
| 41014 | 100.0% |
| 41015 | 100.0% |
| 41016 | 100.0% |
| 41017 | 100.0% |
| 41051 | 100.0% |
| 41011 | 100.0% |
| 41018 | 77.1% |
| 41094 | 37.0% |
| 41030 | 29.3% |
| 41033 | 17.4% |
| 41042 | 5.4% |