53033 FipsDecoder
45021 County FIPS Code

Cherokee County

South Carolina · County seat: Gaffney · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 45021 is Cherokee County, South Carolina. With a population of 56,200 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #24 in South Carolina and #922 nationally. Cherokee County is part of the Gaffney, SC. The state FIPS code for South Carolina is 45. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

45021

State FIPS

45

SC

Population

56,200

2022 ACS · #922 nationally

Density

143.1/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

393

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Nonmetro — urban 2.5K–19.9K, adjacent to metro

RUCC 6

How This FIPS Code Works

45 021
45 = State FIPS (South Carolina)
021 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 45021 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 45 (South Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 021. Together they uniquely identify Cherokee County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 45021

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 45021.

Median Household Income

$47,011

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

18.0%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

40.0

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (5)

Counties that share a border with Cherokee County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 45021.

Federal Datasets Using Code 45021

FIPS code 45021 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 45021 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 45021
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:021",
    "in":   "state:45",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Cherokee County, South Carolina, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 45021
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '45021';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '45'
  AND county_fips = '021';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 45021 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 45021
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "45",
  county    = "021",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 45 (not 45) and 021 (not 21) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
29340 100.0%
29341 100.0%
29702 85.5%
29330 52.4%
29372 42.3%
29743 15.5%
29323 13.1%
29307 10.8%

Other Counties in South Carolina