Watonwan County
Minnesota · County seat: St. James · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 27165 is Watonwan County, Minnesota. With a population of 11,205 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #65 in Minnesota and #2401 nationally. 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
27165
Population
11,205
2022 ACS · #2401 nationally
Density
25.8/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
435
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — rural, adjacent to metro
RUCC 8
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 27165 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 27 (Minnesota) with the 3-digit county identifier 165. Together they uniquely identify Watonwan County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 27165
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 27165.
Median Household Income
$65,197
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
13.3%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
41.0
ACS B01002_001E
Adjacent Counties (5)
Counties that share a border with Watonwan County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 27165.
Federal Datasets Using Code 27165
FIPS code 27165 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 27165 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:165",
"in": "state:27",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Watonwan County, Minnesota, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '27165';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '27'
AND county_fips = '165';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 27165 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "27",
county = "165",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Watonwan 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 Watonwan County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 56120 | 100.0% |
| 56022 | 100.0% |
| 56056 | 100.0% |
| 56081 | 95.9% |
| 56060 | 94.1% |
| 56062 | 64.1% |
| 56162 | 35.8% |
| 56088 | 23.9% |
| 56160 | 20.1% |
| 56019 | 8.0% |