Houston County
Minnesota · County seat: Caledonia · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 27055 is Houston County, Minnesota. With a population of 18,826 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #51 in Minnesota and #1934 nationally. Houston County is part of the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN. 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
27055
Population
18,826
2022 ACS · #1934 nationally
Density
34.1/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
552
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 27055 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 27 (Minnesota) with the 3-digit county identifier 055. Together they uniquely identify Houston County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 27055
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 27055.
Median Household Income
$71,580
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
7.2%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
44.6
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Houston County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 27055.
Federal Datasets Using Code 27055
FIPS code 27055 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 27055 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:055",
"in": "state:27",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Houston County, Minnesota, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '27055';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '27'
AND county_fips = '055';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 27055 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "27",
county = "055",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Houston 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 Houston County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 55919 | 100.0% |
| 55921 | 100.0% |
| 55931 | 100.0% |
| 55941 | 100.0% |
| 55974 | 96.0% |
| 55943 | 80.4% |
| 55947 | 63.5% |
| 55971 | 18.2% |
| 55954 | 12.4% |