McDowell County
West Virginia · County seat: Welch · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 54047 is McDowell County, West Virginia. With a population of 18,911 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #32 in West Virginia and #1928 nationally. The state FIPS code for West Virginia is 54. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
54047
Population
18,911
2022 ACS · #1928 nationally
Density
35.5/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
533
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — completely rural
RUCC 9
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 54047 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 54 (West Virginia) with the 3-digit county identifier 047. Together they uniquely identify McDowell County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 54047
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 54047.
Median Household Income
$28,235
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
33.3%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
45.3
ACS B01002_001E
Adjacent Counties (5)
Counties that share a border with McDowell County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 54047.
Federal Datasets Using Code 54047
FIPS code 54047 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 54047 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:047",
"in": "state:54",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [McDowell County, West Virginia, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '54047';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '54'
AND county_fips = '047';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 54047 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "54",
county = "047",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in McDowell 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 McDowell County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 24895 | 100.0% |
| 24879 | 100.0% |
| 24881 | 100.0% |
| 24884 | 100.0% |
| 24887 | 100.0% |
| 24888 | 100.0% |
| 24892 | 100.0% |
| 24894 | 100.0% |
| 24808 | 100.0% |
| 24811 | 100.0% |
| 24813 | 100.0% |
| 24815 | 100.0% |
| 24816 | 100.0% |
| 24817 | 100.0% |
| 24826 | 100.0% |
| 24830 | 100.0% |
| 24831 | 100.0% |
| 24836 | 100.0% |
| 24843 | 100.0% |
| 24848 | 100.0% |
| 24850 | 100.0% |
| 24853 | 100.0% |
| 24855 | 100.0% |
| 24861 | 100.0% |
| 24862 | 100.0% |
| 24866 | 100.0% |
| 24868 | 100.0% |
| 24871 | 100.0% |
| 24872 | 100.0% |
| 24873 | 100.0% |
Showing top 30 of 38 ZIP codes by residential address share.