Guilford County
North Carolina · County seat: Greensboro · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 37081 is Guilford County, North Carolina. With a population of 539,557 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #3 in North Carolina and #126 nationally. Guilford County is part of the Greensboro-High Point, NC. The state FIPS code for North Carolina is 37. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
37081
Population
539,557
2022 ACS · #126 nationally
Density
835.6/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
646
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 250K–1M population
RUCC 2
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 37081 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 37 (North Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 081. Together they uniquely identify Guilford County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 37081
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 37081.
Median Household Income
$62,880
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
15.1%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
37.2
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Guilford County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 37081.
Federal Datasets Using Code 37081
FIPS code 37081 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 37081 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:081",
"in": "state:37",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Guilford County, North Carolina, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '37081';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '37'
AND county_fips = '081';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 37081 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "37",
county = "081",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Guilford 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 Guilford County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 27377 | 100.0% |
| 27455 | 100.0% |
| 27412 | 100.0% |
| 27235 | 100.0% |
| 27411 | 100.0% |
| 27410 | 100.0% |
| 27401 | 100.0% |
| 27342 | 100.0% |
| 27409 | 100.0% |
| 27408 | 100.0% |
| 27407 | 100.0% |
| 27268 | 100.0% |
| 27282 | 100.0% |
| 27406 | 100.0% |
| 27405 | 100.0% |
| 27301 | 100.0% |
| 27310 | 100.0% |
| 27403 | 100.0% |
| 27283 | 98.5% |
| 27260 | 96.5% |
| 27214 | 88.7% |
| 27249 | 79.7% |
| 27358 | 70.7% |
| 27313 | 69.7% |
| 27262 | 66.5% |
| 27265 | 58.4% |
| 27263 | 38.4% |
| 27357 | 37.7% |
| 27233 | 33.3% |
| 27298 | 23.8% |
Showing top 30 of 35 ZIP codes by residential address share.