53033 FipsDecoder
55051 County FIPS Code

Iron County

Wisconsin · County seat: Hurley · Active county or equivalent

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FIPS code 55051 is Iron County, Wisconsin. With a population of 6,136 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #70 in Wisconsin and #2797 nationally. The state FIPS code for Wisconsin is 55. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.

County FIPS

55051

State FIPS

55

WI

Population

6,136

2022 ACS · #2797 nationally

Density

8.1/mi²

people per sq mile

Land Area

758

sq miles

Urban/Rural

Nonmetro — completely rural

RUCC 9

How This FIPS Code Works

55 051
55 = State FIPS (Wisconsin)
051 = County FIPS

The 5-digit FIPS code 55051 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 55 (Wisconsin) with the 3-digit county identifier 051. Together they uniquely identify Iron County in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.

Census ACS Data for FIPS 55051

From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 55051.

Median Household Income

$55,777

ACS B19013_001E

Poverty Rate

10.5%

ACS B17001 (below poverty level)

Median Age

56.1

ACS B01002_001E

Adjacent Counties (4)

Counties that share a border with Iron County. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 55051.

Federal Datasets Using Code 55051

FIPS code 55051 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 55051 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 55051
import requests

url = "https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5"
params = {
    "get":  "NAME,B19013_001E,B01003_001E",
    "for":  "county:051",
    "in":   "state:55",
    "key":  "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json()  # [[header...], [Iron County, Wisconsin, income, pop, ...]
SQL — filtering by county FIPS 55051
-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '55051';

-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '55'
  AND county_fips = '051';

-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 55051 is WRONG for this county
R — tidycensus 55051
library(tidycensus)

get_acs(
  geography = "county",
  variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
  state     = "55",
  county    = "051",
  year      = 2022
)
Zero-padding reminder: FIPS codes must always be stored and compared as zero-padded strings. 55 (not 55) and 051 (not 51) — losing the leading zeros is one of the most common data-join bugs in federal datasets. Full guide →

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

ZIP Code % in county
54565 100.0%
54525 100.0%
54534 100.0%
54536 100.0%
54547 100.0%
54550 100.0%
54559 85.4%
54552 25.5%
54538 12.4%
54514 6.3%
54557 1.2%
54545 0.1%

Other Counties in Wisconsin