Dakota County
Minnesota · County seat: Hastings · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 27037 is Dakota County, Minnesota. With a population of 439,179 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #3 in Minnesota and #159 nationally. Dakota County is part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI. The state FIPS code for Minnesota is 27. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
27037
Population
439,179
2022 ACS · #159 nationally
Density
781.2/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
562
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 1M+ population
RUCC 1
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 27037 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 27 (Minnesota) with the 3-digit county identifier 037. Together they uniquely identify Dakota County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 27037
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 27037.
Median Household Income
$101,360
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
5.6%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
38.4
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Dakota County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 27037.
Federal Datasets Using Code 27037
FIPS code 27037 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 27037 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:037",
"in": "state:27",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Dakota County, Minnesota, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '27037';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '27'
AND county_fips = '037';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 27037 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "27",
county = "037",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Dakota 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 Dakota County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 55337 | 100.0% |
| 55024 | 100.0% |
| 55031 | 100.0% |
| 55120 | 100.0% |
| 55121 | 100.0% |
| 55122 | 100.0% |
| 55123 | 100.0% |
| 55124 | 100.0% |
| 55150 | 100.0% |
| 55306 | 100.0% |
| 55068 | 100.0% |
| 55075 | 100.0% |
| 55076 | 100.0% |
| 55077 | 100.0% |
| 55085 | 100.0% |
| 55118 | 99.8% |
| 55065 | 98.4% |
| 55033 | 75.4% |
| 55044 | 69.5% |
| 55057 | 45.8% |
| 55009 | 17.7% |
| 55089 | 3.2% |