Cameron County
Texas · County seat: Brownsville · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 48061 is Cameron County, Texas. With a population of 421,854 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #13 in Texas and #166 nationally. Cameron County is part of the Brownsville-Harlingen, TX. The state FIPS code for Texas is 48. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
48061
Population
421,854
2022 ACS · #166 nationally
Density
473.5/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
891
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 250K–1M population
RUCC 2
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 48061 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 48 (Texas) with the 3-digit county identifier 061. Together they uniquely identify Cameron County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 48061
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 48061.
Median Household Income
$47,435
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
25.3%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
32.0
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (2)
Counties that share a border with Cameron County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 48061.
Federal Datasets Using Code 48061
FIPS code 48061 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 48061 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:061",
"in": "state:48",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Cameron County, Texas, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '48061';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '48'
AND county_fips = '061';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 48061 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "48",
county = "061",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Cameron 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 Cameron County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 78597 | 100.0% |
| 78521 | 100.0% |
| 78526 | 100.0% |
| 78535 | 100.0% |
| 78550 | 100.0% |
| 78552 | 100.0% |
| 78559 | 100.0% |
| 78566 | 100.0% |
| 78567 | 100.0% |
| 78520 | 100.0% |
| 78575 | 100.0% |
| 78578 | 100.0% |
| 78583 | 100.0% |
| 78586 | 100.0% |
| 78592 | 100.0% |
| 78593 | 100.0% |
| 78569 | 5.7% |