Muskegon County
Michigan · County seat: Muskegon · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 26121 is Muskegon County, Michigan. With a population of 175,947 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #12 in Michigan and #375 nationally. Muskegon County is part of the Muskegon-Norton Shores, 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
26121
Population
175,947
2022 ACS · #375 nationally
Density
352.4/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
499
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 26121 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 26 (Michigan) with the 3-digit county identifier 121. Together they uniquely identify Muskegon County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 26121
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 26121.
Median Household Income
$61,347
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
12.9%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
39.4
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Muskegon County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 26121.
Federal Datasets Using Code 26121
FIPS code 26121 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 26121 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:121",
"in": "state:26",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Muskegon County, Michigan, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '26121';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '26'
AND county_fips = '121';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 26121 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "26",
county = "121",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Muskegon 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 Muskegon County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 49461 | 100.0% |
| 49440 | 100.0% |
| 49441 | 100.0% |
| 49442 | 100.0% |
| 49443 | 100.0% |
| 49444 | 100.0% |
| 49445 | 100.0% |
| 49457 | 97.1% |
| 49451 | 95.3% |
| 49303 | 93.5% |
| 49415 | 91.7% |
| 49318 | 73.0% |
| 49425 | 62.9% |
| 49437 | 61.3% |
| 49448 | 19.7% |
| 49456 | 13.0% |
| 49403 | 7.0% |
| 49404 | 6.5% |
| 49330 | 1.1% |
| 49412 | 0.8% |
| 49327 | 0.6% |