Lajas Municipio
Puerto Rico · County seat: Lajas · Active county or equivalent
FIPS code 72079 is Lajas Municipio, Puerto Rico. With a population of 23,202 (2022 ACS estimate), it ranks #53 in Puerto Rico and #1718 nationally. Lajas Municipio is part of the Mayagüez, PR. The state FIPS code for Puerto Rico is 72. This code is used in Census Bureau, BLS, EPA, HUD, and USDA federal datasets to identify this county.
County FIPS
72079
Population
23,202
2022 ACS · #1718 nationally
Density
387.0/mi²
people per sq mile
Land Area
60
sq miles
Urban/Rural
Metro — under 250K population
RUCC 3
How This FIPS Code Works
The 5-digit FIPS code 72079 is formed by combining the 2-digit state identifier 72 (Puerto Rico) with the 3-digit county identifier 079. Together they uniquely identify Lajas Municipio in every US federal dataset. No two counties share the same 5-digit FIPS code.
Census ACS Data for FIPS 72079
From the 2022 ACS 5-year estimates — the same values you'd retrieve by querying the Census API with county FIPS 72079.
Median Household Income
$17,131
ACS B19013_001E
Poverty Rate
56.1%
ACS B17001 (below poverty level)
Median Age
47.4
ACS B01002_001E
Metropolitan Area
Adjacent Counties (4)
Counties that share a border with Lajas Municipio. Useful for regional analysis — these are the geographies you'd typically include when studying labor markets, commuting zones, or environmental spillovers around FIPS 72079.
Federal Datasets Using Code 72079
FIPS code 72079 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 72079 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:079",
"in": "state:72",
"key": "YOUR_CENSUS_API_KEY",
}
r = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = r.json() # [[header...], [Lajas Municipio, Puerto Rico, income, pop, ...]-- 5-digit combined FIPS (state + county)
SELECT * FROM your_table WHERE county_fips = '72079';
-- Some datasets store state and county separately
SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE state_fips = '72'
AND county_fips = '079';
-- ⚠ Never cast to integer — leading zeros are lost:
-- county_fips = 72079 is WRONG for this countylibrary(tidycensus)
get_acs(
geography = "county",
variables = c(income = "B19013_001E", pop = "B01003_001E"),
state = "72",
county = "079",
year = 2022
)ZIP Codes in Lajas Municipio
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 Lajas Municipio. Why FIPS ≠ ZIP →
| ZIP Code | % in county |
|---|---|
| 00667 | 98.1% |
| 00647 | 1.8% |
| 00637 | 1.8% |