53033 FipsDecoder
35051 County FIPS Code

Sierra County

New Mexico · County seat: Truth or Consequences · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 35051 is Sierra County, New Mexico. With a population of 11,506 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #25 in New Mexico and #2379 nationally. The state FIPS code for New Mexico is 35. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

35051

State FIPS

35

NM

Population

11,506

2022 ACS · #2379 nationally

Density

2.8/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

4,179

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Nonmetro — urban 2.5K–19.9K, adjacent to metro

RUCC 6

How This FIPS Code Works

35 051
35 = State FIPS (New Mexico)
051 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 35051 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 35 (New Mexico) with the 3-digit county identifier 051. Together they uniquely identify Sierra County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 35051

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 35051.

Median Household Income

$35,256

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

25.2%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

55.4

ACS B01002_001E

Adjacent Counties (7)

Counties that share a border with Sierra County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 35051.

Federal Datasets Using Code 35051

FIPS code 35051 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 35051 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 35051
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:051",
    "in":   "state:35",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Sierra County, New Mexico, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 35051
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '35051';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '35'
  AND county_fips = '051';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 35051 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 35051
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "35",
  county    = "051",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 35 (not 35) and 051 (not 51) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
87901 100.0%
87930 100.0%
87931 100.0%
87933 100.0%
87935 100.0%
87942 100.0%
88042 100.0%
87939 100.0%
87943 45.3%
87936 13.3%

Other Counties in New Mexico