53033 FipsDecoder
34021 County FIPS Code

Mercer County

New Jersey · County seat: Trenton · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 34021 is Mercer County, New Jersey. With a population of 383,732 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #12 in New Jersey and #185 nationally. Mercer County is part of the Trenton-Princeton, NJ. The state FIPS code for New Jersey is 34. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

34021

State FIPS

34

NJ

Population

383,732

2022 ACS · #185 nationally

Density

1,708.8/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

225

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — 250K–1M population

RUCC 2

How This FIPS Code Works

34 021
34 = State FIPS (New Jersey)
021 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 34021 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 34 (New Jersey) with the 3-digit county identifier 021. Together they uniquely identify Mercer County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 34021

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 34021.

Median Household Income

$92,697

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

11.2%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

39.3

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (6)

Counties that share a border with Mercer County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 34021.

Federal Datasets Using Code 34021

FIPS code 34021 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 34021 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.

Census ACS API — Python 34021
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:021",
    "in":   "state:34",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Mercer County, New Jersey, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 34021
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '34021';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '34'
  AND county_fips = '021';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 34021 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 34021
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "34",
  county    = "021",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 34 (not 34) and 021 (not 21) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

ZIP Codes in Mercer 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 Mercer County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →

ZIP Code % in county
08618 100.0%
08690 100.0%
08520 100.0%
08648 100.0%
08638 100.0%
08534 100.0%
08629 100.0%
08542 100.0%
08544 100.0%
08550 100.0%
08628 100.0%
08611 100.0%
08619 100.0%
08561 100.0%
08608 100.0%
08609 100.0%
08560 98.8%
08610 94.3%
08691 88.7%
08620 87.5%
08525 69.6%
08540 62.6%
08530 18.9%
08512 6.7%
08558 4.5%
08501 3.0%

Other Counties in New Jersey