Rappahannock County
Virginia · County seat: Washington · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 51157 is Rappahannock County, Virginia. With a population of 7,422 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #120 in Virginia and #2693 nationally. Rappahannock County is part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV. The state FIPS code for Virginia is 51. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
51157
Population
7,422
2022 ACS · #2693 nationally
Density
27.9/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
266
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — 1M+ population
RUCC 1
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 51157 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 51 (Virginia) with the 3-digit county identifier 157. Together they uniquely identify Rappahannock County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 51157
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 51157.
Median Household Income
$98,663
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
7.6%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
50.0
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (5)
Counties that share a border with Rappahannock County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 51157.
Federal Datasets Using Code 51157
FIPS code 51157 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 51157 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:157",
"in": "state:51",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Rappahannock County, Virginia, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '51157';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '51'
AND county_fips = '157';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 51157 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "51",
county = "157",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 22749 | 100.0% |
| 22623 | 100.0% |
| 22627 | 100.0% |
| 22640 | 100.0% |
| 22747 | 100.0% |
| 22716 | 97.1% |
| 22740 | 93.8% |
| 20106 | 71.8% |
| 22713 | 32.4% |
| 22630 | 0.0% |