Date Issued: Approved by the Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information on April 3, 1997

Applicability:
Who cares about these standards?
All developers of public databases containing information about Minnesota counties

When do they apply? When do they not apply?
This standard has been developed to improve the exchange of public data about counties. Use of this standard is mandatory when the following two conditions exist:

• a state agency is transferring data to another agency, local government, federal agency, the private sector or a public requestor, AND
• no other previously agreed to historic coding scheme for state counties has been designated.

Use of this standard is recommended when local governments exchange data, or when any new public databases are being designed that must incorporate a set of county codes. Use by local government, the private sector and the public in general is encouraged, but voluntary. This standard applies to data that are being transferred, and does not restrict how those data are internally stored.

Purpose of these Standards:
The purpose of this standard is to provide a single, common coding scheme for counties in Minnesota. It is intended to be used primarily when data are being transferred between a state agency and some external customer. Its use will improve the shareability of data resources created by Minnesota state and local government by avoiding unnecessary duplication and incompatibilities in the collection, processing and dissemination of data.

Standard Requirements:
This standard provides a set of three-digit codes to be used when representing the 87 counties of the state of Minnesota. This standard is equivalent to the Minnesota portion of the Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 6-4 (FIPS PUB 6-4), dated December 15, 1979. County names and codes are listed below.

COUNTY NAME	CODE	COUNTY NAME	CODE	COUNTY NAME	CODE
Aitkin	001	Lac qui Parle	073	Stearns	145
Anoka	003	Lake	075	Steele	147
Becker	005	Lake of the Woods	077	Stevens	149
Beltrami	007	Le Sueur	079	Swift	151
Benton	009	Lincoln	081	Todd	153
Big Stone	011	Lyon	083	Traverse	155
Blue Earth	013	McLeod	085	Wabasha	157
Brown	015	Mahnomen	087	Wadena	159
Carlton	017	Marshall	089	Waseca	161
Carver	019	Martin	091	Washington	163
Cass	021	Meeker	093	Watonwan	165
Chippewa	023	Mille Lacs	095	Wilkin	167
Chisago	025	Morrison	097	Winona	169
Clay	027	Mower	099	Wright	171
Clearwater	029	Murray	101	Yellow Medicine	173
Cook	031	Nicollet	103
Cottonwood	033	Nobles	105
Crow Wing	035	Norman	107
Dakota	037	Olmsted	109
Dodge	039	Ottertail	111
Douglas	041	Pennington	113
Faribault	043	Pine	115
Fillmore	045	Pipestone	117
Freeborn	047	Polk	119
Goodhue	049	Pope	121
Grant	051	Ramsey	123
Hennepin	053	Red Lake	125
Houston	055	Redwood	127
Hubbard	057	Renville	129
Isanti	059	Rice	131
Itasca	061	Rock	133
Jackson	063	Roseau	135
Kanabec	065	St. Louis	137
Kandiyohi	067	Scott	139
Kittson	069	Sherburne	141
Koochiching	071	Sibley	143

Compliance:
What constitutes compliance?
Agencies must be capable of translating their data into a form consistent with this standard for the purpose of exchanging data between organizations. Agencies may continue to store data in alternate formats of their choice, provided the capability exists to readily convert them, if requested by a data sharing partner. It is recommended that agencies integrate this standard into new system designs whenever possible.

How will compliance be measured?
Evidence of compliance will be determined based on reports of satisfactory data transfers from receiving state, local and federal agencies, and private sector and citizen customers.

References and Sources of More Information:

Further information about this standard may be obtained from Land Management Information Center (LMIC); 300 Centennial Building; 658 Cedar Street; St. Paul, MN 55155; phone: 651-201-2499; fax: 651-296-3698; email:clearing.house@state.mn.us

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census maintains the federal standard FIPS 6-4. Inquiries concerning the technical content of that standard should be addressed to: Office of the Chief; Geography Division; Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C. 20233

Copies of FIPS-PUB 6-4 are available for sale by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS); U.S. Department of Commerce; Springfield, VA 22161. It is also available on the Internet at url: http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip6-4.htm.

Further information about this standard may be obtained from Office of Geographic and Demographic Analysis phone: 651-201-2481