Watauga County
North Carolina · County seat: Boone · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 37189 is Watauga County, North Carolina. With a population of 54,540 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #49 in North Carolina and #940 nationally. Watauga County is part of the Boone, 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
37189
Population
54,540
2022 ACS · #940 nationally
Density
174.5/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
313
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — urban 20K+, not adjacent to metro
RUCC 5
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 37189 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 37 (North Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 189. Together they uniquely identify Watauga County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 37189
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 37189.
Median Household Income
$50,034
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
24.9%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
32.1
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (5)
Counties that share a border with Watauga County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 37189.
Federal Datasets Using Code 37189
FIPS code 37189 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 37189 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:189",
"in": "state:37",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Watauga County, North Carolina, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '37189';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '37'
AND county_fips = '189';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 37189 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "37",
county = "189",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Watauga 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 Watauga County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 28607 | 100.0% |
| 28692 | 100.0% |
| 28679 | 96.1% |
| 28618 | 88.5% |
| 28698 | 76.2% |
| 28605 | 71.3% |
| 28604 | 57.6% |
| 28684 | 44.1% |
| 28645 | 2.4% |
| 28622 | 0.3% |