53033 FipsDecoder
24021 County FIPS Code

Frederick County

Maryland · County seat: Frederick · Active county or equivalent

View on CensusDepth ↗

FIPS code 24021 is Frederick County, Maryland. With a population of 273,829 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #7 in Maryland and #253 nationally. Frederick County is part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV. The state FIPS code for Maryland is 24. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

24021

State FIPS

24

MD

Population

273,829

2022 ACS · #253 nationally

Density

414.8/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

660

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — 1M+ population

RUCC 1

How This FIPS Code Works

24 021
24 = State FIPS (Maryland)
021 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 24021 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 24 (Maryland) with the 3-digit county identifier 021. Together they uniquely identify Frederick County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 24021

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 24021.

Median Household Income

$115,724

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

6.2%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

38.9

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (7)

Counties that share a border with Frederick County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 24021.

Federal Datasets Using Code 24021

FIPS code 24021 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 24021 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 24021
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:021",
    "in":   "state:24",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Frederick County, Maryland, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 24021
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '24021';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '24'
  AND county_fips = '021';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 24021 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 24021
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "24",
  county    = "021",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 24 (not 24) and 021 (not 21) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
21778 100.0%
21798 100.0%
21701 100.0%
21702 100.0%
21703 100.0%
21704 100.0%
21705 100.0%
21710 100.0%
21714 100.0%
21716 100.0%
21717 100.0%
21718 100.0%
21793 100.0%
21727 100.0%
21754 100.0%
21755 100.0%
21773 100.0%
21774 100.0%
21788 100.0%
21777 100.0%
21790 100.0%
21762 100.0%
21770 100.0%
21769 99.3%
21780 95.7%
21791 60.7%
21771 51.4%
21758 50.3%
21757 47.7%
21783 27.1%

Showing top 30 of 35 ZIP codes by residential address share.

Other Counties in Maryland