Ritchie County
West Virginia · County seat: Harrisville · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 54085 is Ritchie County, West Virginia. With a population of 8,507 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #44 in West Virginia and #2604 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
54085
Population
8,507
2022 ACS · #2604 nationally
Density
18.8/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
452
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Nonmetro — rural, adjacent to metro
RUCC 8
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 54085 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 54 (West Virginia) with the 3-digit county identifier 085. Together they uniquely identify Ritchie County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 54085
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 54085.
Median Household Income
$48,973
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
20.3%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
46.6
ACS B01002_001E
Adjacent Counties (7)
Counties that share a border with Ritchie County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 54085.
Federal Datasets Using Code 54085
FIPS code 54085 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 54085 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:085",
"in": "state:54",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Ritchie County, West Virginia, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '54085';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '54'
AND county_fips = '085';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 54085 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "54",
county = "085",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Ritchie 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 Ritchie County. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 26362 | 100.0% |
| 26421 | 100.0% |
| 26148 | 100.0% |
| 26161 | 100.0% |
| 26327 | 100.0% |
| 26337 | 100.0% |
| 26178 | 100.0% |
| 26325 | 100.0% |
| 26346 | 88.7% |
| 26415 | 68.8% |
| 26137 | 21.4% |
| 26456 | 8.8% |
| 26143 | 5.1% |
| 26170 | 3.6% |