53033 FipsDecoder
53005 County FIPS Code

Benton County

Washington · County seat: Prosser · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 53005 is Benton County, Washington. With a population of 207,560 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #10 in Washington and #326 nationally. Benton County is part of the Kennewick-Richland, WA. The state FIPS code for Washington is 53. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

53005

State FIPS

53

WA

Population

207,560

2022 ACS · #326 nationally

Density

122.1/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

1,700

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Metro — 250K–1M population

RUCC 2

How This FIPS Code Works

53 005
53 = State FIPS (Washington)
005 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 53005 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 53 (Washington) with the 3-digit county identifier 005. Together they uniquely identify Benton County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 53005

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 53005.

Median Household Income

$83,778

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

10.5%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

36.1

ACS B01002_001E

Metropolitan Area

Adjacent Counties (7)

Counties that share a border with Benton County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 53005.

Federal Datasets Using Code 53005

FIPS code 53005 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 53005 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 53005
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:005",
    "in":   "state:53",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Benton County, Washington, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 53005
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '53005';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '53'
  AND county_fips = '005';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 53005 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 53005
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "53",
  county    = "005",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 53 (not 53) and 005 (not 5) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
99354 100.0%
99346 100.0%
99352 100.0%
99353 100.0%
99320 100.0%
99336 100.0%
99337 100.0%
99338 100.0%
99345 100.0%
99350 86.6%
98944 72.8%
98930 37.8%

Other Counties in Washington