Date Issued: Approved by the Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information 12/01/1994
Applicability:
Who cares about these standards?
All developers of public databases containing information about states and related entities
When do they apply? When do they not apply?
This standard has been developed to improve the exchange of public data about states. Use of this standard is mandatory when the following two conditions exist:
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 state 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 common coding scheme for states. 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 two sets of codes, numeric and alpha, to be used when representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The codes in this standard are equivalent to those used in the Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 5-2 (FIPS PUB 5-2), dated May 28, 1987. Codes are shown below.
Codes for the States and the District of Columbia
| Name | Numeric Code | Alpha Code |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 01 | AL |
| Alaska | 02 | AK |
| Arizona | 04 | AZ |
| Arkansas | 05 | AR |
| California | 06 | CA |
| Colorado | 08 | CO |
| Connecticut | 09 | CT |
| Delaware | 10 | DE |
| District of Columbia | 11 | DC |
| Florida | 12 | FL |
| Georgia | 13 | GA |
| Hawaii | 15 | HI |
| Idaho | 16 | ID |
| Illinois | 17 | IL |
| Indiana | 18 | IN |
| Iowa | 19 | IA |
| Kansas | 20 | KS |
| Kentucky | 21 | KY |
| Louisiana | 22 | LA |
| Maine | 23 | ME |
| Maryland | 24 | MD |
| Massachusetts | 25 | MA |
| Michigan | 26 | MI |
| Minnesota | 27 | MN |
| Mississippi | 28 | MS |
| Missouri | 29 | MO |
| Montana | 30 | MT |
| Nebraska | 31 | NE |
| New Jersey | 34 | NJ |
| Nevada | 32 | NV |
| New Hampshire | 33 | NH |
| New Mexico | 35 | NM |
| New York | 36 | NY |
| North Carolina | 37 | NC |
| North Dakota | 38 | ND |
| Ohio | 39 | OH |
| Oklahoma | 40 | OK |
| Oregon | 41 | OR |
| Pennsylvania | 42 | PA |
| Rhode Island | 44 | RI |
| South Carolina | 45 | SC |
| South Dakota | 46 | SD |
| Tennessee | 47 | TN |
| Texas | 48 | TX |
| Utah | 49 | UT |
| Vermont | 50 | VT |
| Virginia | 51 | VA |
| Washington | 53 | WA |
| West Virginia | 54 | WV |
| Wisconsin | 55 | WI |
| Wyoming | 56 | WY |
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: The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census maintains the federal standard FIPS 5-2. 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
Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 5-2 (FIPS PUB 5-2) is available on the Internet at http://www.nist.gov/itl/upload/FIPSCodesReplacementChart2014.pdf.
Further information about this standard may be obtained from the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo).
300 Centennial Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
phone: 651-201-2499
email: gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
