Rowan County
North Carolina · County seat: Salisbury · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 37159 is Rowan County, North Carolina. With a population of 147,067 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #19 in North Carolina and #450 nationally. Rowan County is part of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC. 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
37159
Population
147,067
2022 ACS · #450 nationally
Density
287.6/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
511
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 1M+ population
RUCC 1
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 37159 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 37 (North Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 159. Together they uniquely identify Rowan County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 37159
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 37159.
Median Household Income
$59,717
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
16.4%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
40.7
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Rowan County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 37159.
Federal Datasets Using Code 37159
FIPS code 37159 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 37159 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:159",
"in": "state:37",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Rowan County, North Carolina, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '37159';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '37'
AND county_fips = '159';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 37159 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "37",
county = "159",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Rowan 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 Rowan County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 28159 | 100.0% |
| 27054 | 100.0% |
| 28023 | 100.0% |
| 28039 | 100.0% |
| 28041 | 100.0% |
| 28072 | 100.0% |
| 28088 | 100.0% |
| 28144 | 100.0% |
| 28146 | 100.0% |
| 28147 | 100.0% |
| 28125 | 95.1% |
| 27013 | 80.7% |
| 28138 | 74.9% |
| 28071 | 66.8% |
| 28081 | 48.7% |
| 28137 | 43.4% |
| 28115 | 29.5% |
| 28083 | 24.9% |
| 28127 | 1.0% |
| 28036 | 0.3% |