Starr County
Texas · County seat: Rio Grande City · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 48427 is Starr County, Texas. With a population of 65,716 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #54 in Texas and #820 nationally. Starr County is part of the Rio Grande City-Roma, 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
48427
Population
65,716
2022 ACS · #820 nationally
Density
53.7/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
1,223
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — urban 20K+, adjacent to metro
RUCC 4
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 48427 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 48 (Texas) with the 3-digit county identifier 427. Together they uniquely identify Starr County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 48427
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 48427.
Median Household Income
$35,979
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
33.5%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
28.6
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (4)
Counties that share a border with Starr County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 48427.
Federal Datasets Using Code 48427
FIPS code 48427 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 48427 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:427",
"in": "state:48",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Starr County, Texas, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '48427';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '48'
AND county_fips = '427';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 48427 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "48",
county = "427",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Starr 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 Starr County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 78536 | 100.0% |
| 78585 | 100.0% |
| 78588 | 100.0% |
| 78591 | 100.0% |
| 78547 | 100.0% |
| 78548 | 100.0% |
| 78582 | 100.0% |
| 78584 | 100.0% |
| 78545 | 68.6% |
| 78595 | 21.7% |
| 78563 | 0.8% |