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American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Codes

American National Standards Institute codes (ANSI codes) are a standardized set of numeric or alphabetic codes issued by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities through all federal government agencies. These standards replace the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes previously issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The entities covered include: states and statistically equivalent entities, counties and statistically equivalent entities, named populated and related location entities (such as, places and county subdivisions), and American Indian and Alaska Native areas.

ANSI maintains an Internet World Wide Web site of ANSI codes and information Link to a non-federal Web site.

Find ANSI Codes

Note:   The search function on these tools uses the Soundex Coding method of searching. If it does not find an exact match to your search, it returns similar sounding entities. This can lead to some unexpected results. We are working to improve the search functionality but wanted to make these tools and the lists available in the meantime.

Search Tips:

  1. Begin your search with the beginning of the entity name. Searching Francisco will not return San Francisco.
  2. Enter as many syllables as possible including the entity type. Single syllables don't return any matches. Search on Cass County instead of just Cass.
  3. Try common abbreviations in addition to the spelled out word. For example, try both Fort and Ft.
  4. If all else fails, look at the state or national list and use the sort features at the top to help make your entity easier to find.

Please select a link below find ANSI codes for that entity type:

Other Resources

Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary County Divisions, and Other Locational Entities of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Outlying Areas Link to a non-federal Web site

  • Also known as INCITS 446-2008
  • To look up a code used by the Census Bureau (including Census and Civil codes), click on the link above and then click on "Search Domestic Names".
  • To download codes used by the Census Bureau (including Census and Civil codes), click on the link above, then click on "Download Domestic Names", and then go to "State Files with Federal Codes".

The U.S. Census Bureau uses the codes in INCITS 446-2008 to identify both legal and statistical entities for county subdivisions, places, and American Indian areas/Alaska Native areas/Hawaiian home lands. INCITS 446-2008 includes many more entity records than those for which the Census Bureau tabulates data. The INCITS 446-2008 codes are nation-based. American Indian reservations, off-reservation trust land areas, American Indian tribal subdivisions, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), state designated tribal statistical areas (SDTSAs), and/or tribal designated statistical areas (TDSAs) in more than one state will have one INCITS 446-2008 code.

Historic FIPS Resources

Census 2000 FIPS 55 Codes Link to a non-federal Web site

1990 FIPS 55 Codes Link to a non-federal Web site


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Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Geography | (301) 763-1128 |  Last Revised: December 05, 2012