53033 FipsDecoder
County equivalent — Philadelphia County is not technically a "county" but functions as one in federal datasets. Learn about county equivalents →
42101 County FIPS Code

Philadelphia County

Pennsylvania · County seat: Philadelphia · County equivalent (e.g. borough in AK, parish in LA)

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FIPS code 42101 is Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. With a population of 1,593,208 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #1 in Pennsylvania and #23 nationally. Philadelphia County is part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD. 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

42101

State FIPS

42

PA

Population

1,593,208

2022 ACS · #23 nationally

Density

11,880.8/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

134

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — 1M+ population

RUCC 1

How This FIPS Code Works

42 101
42 = State FIPS (Pennsylvania)
101 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 42101 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 42 (Pennsylvania) with the 3-digit county identifier 101. Together they uniquely identify Philadelphia County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 42101

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 42101.

Median Household Income

$57,537

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

22.7%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

34.8

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (6)

Counties that share a border with Philadelphia County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 42101.

Federal Datasets Using Code 42101

FIPS code 42101 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 42101 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 42101
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:101",
    "in":   "state:42",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 42101
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '42101';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '42'
  AND county_fips = '101';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 42101 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 42101
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "42",
  county    = "101",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 42 (not 42) and 101 (not 101) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
19154 100.0%
19103 100.0%
19104 100.0%
19106 100.0%
19107 100.0%
19108 100.0%
19109 100.0%
19111 100.0%
19112 100.0%
19114 100.0%
19115 100.0%
19116 100.0%
19151 100.0%
19152 100.0%
19102 100.0%
19119 100.0%
19120 100.0%
19121 100.0%
19122 100.0%
19123 100.0%
19124 100.0%
19125 100.0%
19126 100.0%
19127 100.0%
19129 100.0%
19130 100.0%
19131 100.0%
19132 100.0%
19133 100.0%
19134 100.0%

Showing top 30 of 49 ZIP codes by residential address share.

Other Counties in Pennsylvania