Centre County
Pennsylvania · County seat: Bellefonte · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 42027 is Centre County, Pennsylvania. With a population of 158,665 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #22 in Pennsylvania and #421 nationally. Centre County is part of the State College, PA. The state FIPS code for Pennsylvania is 42. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
42027
Population
158,665
2022 ACS · #421 nationally
Density
143.0/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
1,110
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 42027 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 42 (Pennsylvania) with the 3-digit county identifier 027. Together they uniquely identify Centre County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 42027
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 42027.
Median Household Income
$70,087
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
17.0%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
33.3
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (6)
Counties that share a border with Centre County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 42027.
Federal Datasets Using Code 42027
FIPS code 42027 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 42027 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:027",
"in": "state:42",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Centre County, Pennsylvania, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '42027';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '42'
AND county_fips = '027';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 42027 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "42",
county = "027",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Centre 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 Centre County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 16868 | 100.0% |
| 16677 | 100.0% |
| 16882 | 100.0% |
| 16801 | 100.0% |
| 16802 | 100.0% |
| 16803 | 100.0% |
| 16820 | 100.0% |
| 16875 | 100.0% |
| 16823 | 100.0% |
| 16826 | 100.0% |
| 16827 | 100.0% |
| 16828 | 100.0% |
| 16829 | 100.0% |
| 16832 | 100.0% |
| 16835 | 100.0% |
| 16872 | 100.0% |
| 16864 | 100.0% |
| 16870 | 100.0% |
| 16844 | 100.0% |
| 16874 | 100.0% |
| 16851 | 100.0% |
| 16852 | 100.0% |
| 16853 | 100.0% |
| 16854 | 100.0% |
| 16856 | 100.0% |
| 16859 | 100.0% |
| 16841 | 98.8% |
| 16866 | 90.6% |
| 16865 | 84.3% |
| 16845 | 64.0% |
Showing top 30 of 35 ZIP codes by residential address share.