Rapides Parish
Louisiana · County seat: Alexandria · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 22079 is Rapides Parish, Louisiana. With a population of 129,536 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #11 in Louisiana and #495 nationally. Rapides Parish is part of the Alexandria, LA. The state FIPS code for Louisiana is 22. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
22079
Population
129,536
2022 ACS · #495 nationally
Density
98.3/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
1,318
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 22079 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 22 (Louisiana) with the 3-digit county identifier 079. Together they uniquely identify Rapides Parish in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 22079
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 22079.
Median Household Income
$55,407
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
18.3%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
37.7
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Rapides Parish. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 22079.
Federal Datasets Using Code 22079
FIPS code 22079 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 22079 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:079",
"in": "state:22",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Rapides Parish, Louisiana, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '22079';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '22'
AND county_fips = '079';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 22079 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "22",
county = "079",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Rapides Parish
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 Rapides Parish. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 71485 | 100.0% |
| 71301 | 100.0% |
| 71302 | 100.0% |
| 71303 | 100.0% |
| 71330 | 100.0% |
| 71346 | 100.0% |
| 71359 | 100.0% |
| 71405 | 100.0% |
| 71409 | 100.0% |
| 71424 | 100.0% |
| 71430 | 100.0% |
| 71433 | 100.0% |
| 71466 | 100.0% |
| 71472 | 100.0% |
| 71360 | 88.4% |
| 71328 | 83.7% |
| 71325 | 73.0% |
| 71427 | 60.3% |
| 71447 | 56.6% |
| 71438 | 29.7% |
| 71455 | 15.0% |
| 70656 | 12.5% |
| 71463 | 10.5% |
| 71367 | 6.8% |
| 71322 | 6.4% |
| 71323 | 5.1% |
| 71423 | 3.6% |
| 71467 | 0.8% |
| 71351 | 0.8% |