53033 FipsDecoder
45035 County FIPS Code

Dorchester County

South Carolina · County seat: St. George · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 45035 is Dorchester County, South Carolina. With a population of 162,139 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #12 in South Carolina and #408 nationally. Dorchester County is part of the Charleston-North Charleston, 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

45035

State FIPS

45

SC

Population

162,139

2022 ACS · #408 nationally

Density

282.9/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

573

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — 250K–1M population

RUCC 2

How This FIPS Code Works

45 035
45 = State FIPS (South Carolina)
035 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 45035 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 45 (South Carolina) with the 3-digit county identifier 035. Together they uniquely identify Dorchester County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 45035

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 45035.

Median Household Income

$73,686

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

12.3%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

37.7

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (4)

Counties that share a border with Dorchester County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 45035.

Federal Datasets Using Code 45035

FIPS code 45035 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 45035 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 45035
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:035",
    "in":   "state:45",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Dorchester County, South Carolina, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 45035
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '45035';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '45'
  AND county_fips = '035';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 45035 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 45035
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "45",
  county    = "035",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 45 (not 45) and 035 (not 35) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
29437 100.0%
29448 100.0%
29477 99.1%
29471 97.2%
29485 93.5%
29483 83.4%
29472 59.7%
29420 59.5%
29470 33.8%
29456 25.1%
29418 22.5%
29414 18.0%
29426 16.5%
29432 7.0%
29018 2.5%

Other Counties in South Carolina