Berrien County
Michigan · County seat: St. Joseph · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 26021 is Berrien County, Michigan. With a population of 153,938 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #16 in Michigan and #437 nationally. Berrien County is part of the Niles, MI. The state FIPS code for Michigan is 26. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
26021
Population
153,938
2022 ACS · #437 nationally
Density
271.1/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
568
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 26021 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 26 (Michigan) with the 3-digit county identifier 021. Together they uniquely identify Berrien County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 26021
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 26021.
Median Household Income
$60,379
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
15.7%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
42.5
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Berrien County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 26021.
Federal Datasets Using Code 26021
FIPS code 26021 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 26021 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:021",
"in": "state:26",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Berrien County, Michigan, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '26021';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '26'
AND county_fips = '021';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 26021 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "26",
county = "021",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Berrien 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 Berrien County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 49119 | 100.0% |
| 49129 | 100.0% |
| 49128 | 100.0% |
| 49084 | 100.0% |
| 49085 | 100.0% |
| 49127 | 100.0% |
| 49101 | 100.0% |
| 49126 | 100.0% |
| 49103 | 100.0% |
| 49104 | 100.0% |
| 49106 | 100.0% |
| 49107 | 100.0% |
| 49125 | 100.0% |
| 49113 | 100.0% |
| 49115 | 100.0% |
| 49116 | 100.0% |
| 49117 | 100.0% |
| 49022 | 97.8% |
| 49111 | 97.6% |
| 49102 | 95.6% |
| 49038 | 86.3% |
| 49098 | 76.4% |
| 49120 | 53.0% |
| 49047 | 1.9% |