53033 FipsDecoder
38017 County FIPS Code

Cass County

North Dakota · County seat: Fargo · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 38017 is Cass County, North Dakota. With a population of 186,328 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #1 in North Dakota and #357 nationally. Cass County is part of the Fargo, ND-MN. The state FIPS code for North Dakota is 38. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

38017

State FIPS

38

ND

Population

186,328

2022 ACS · #357 nationally

Density

105.6/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

1,765

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — under 250K population

RUCC 3

How This FIPS Code Works

38 017
38 = State FIPS (North Dakota)
017 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 38017 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 38 (North Dakota) with the 3-digit county identifier 017. Together they uniquely identify Cass County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 38017

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 38017.

Median Household Income

$73,249

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

10.8%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

32.7

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (7)

Counties that share a border with Cass County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 38017.

Federal Datasets Using Code 38017

FIPS code 38017 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 38017 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 38017
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:017",
    "in":   "state:38",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Cass County, North Dakota, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 38017
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '38017';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '38'
  AND county_fips = '017';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 38017 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 38017
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "38",
  county    = "017",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 38 (not 38) and 017 (not 17) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
58002 100.0%
58004 100.0%
58005 100.0%
58006 100.0%
58007 100.0%
58011 100.0%
58012 100.0%
58021 100.0%
58029 100.0%
58036 100.0%
58042 100.0%
58059 100.0%
58078 100.0%
58079 100.0%
58102 100.0%
58103 100.0%
58104 100.0%
58105 100.0%
58047 97.4%
58048 76.1%
58064 74.4%
58051 59.3%
58071 56.1%
58052 55.9%
58031 53.8%
58027 41.2%
58038 40.1%
58035 33.7%
58068 1.8%
58046 1.7%

Other Counties in North Dakota