Rutherford County
North Carolina · County seat: Rutherfordton · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 37161 is Rutherford County, North Carolina. With a population of 64,680 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #41 in North Carolina and #841 nationally. Rutherford County is part of the Forest City, 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
37161
Population
64,680
2022 ACS · #841 nationally
Density
114.7/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
564
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — urban 20K+, adjacent to metro
RUCC 4
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 37161 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 37 (North Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 161. Together they uniquely identify Rutherford County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 37161
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 37161.
Median Household Income
$50,512
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
18.4%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
44.9
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (8)
Counties that share a border with Rutherford County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 37161.
Federal Datasets Using Code 37161
FIPS code 37161 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 37161 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:161",
"in": "state:37",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Rutherford County, North Carolina, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '37161';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '37'
AND county_fips = '161';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 37161 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "37",
county = "161",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Rutherford 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 Rutherford County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 28160 | 100.0% |
| 28019 | 100.0% |
| 28746 | 100.0% |
| 28024 | 100.0% |
| 28720 | 100.0% |
| 28018 | 100.0% |
| 28043 | 100.0% |
| 28074 | 100.0% |
| 28076 | 100.0% |
| 28040 | 96.1% |
| 28167 | 93.3% |
| 28139 | 86.7% |
| 28114 | 45.8% |
| 28020 | 12.9% |
| 28711 | 9.2% |
| 28756 | 1.1% |
| 28150 | 0.2% |
| 28752 | 0.2% |