Federal Information Processing Standard state code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:23, 14 February 2007

Revision as of 11:23, 14 February 2007

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{{Merge|FIPS place code}}

'''FIPS state codes''' are a U.S. [[Federal Information Processing Standard]] (FIPS) code [http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip5-2.htm (FIPS 5-2)] for [[geocode|geographic coding]] of human settlements in the [[United States]]. They are used in [[Geographic information system|Geographic Information System]]s (GIS), and are also used in this encyclopedia. The current standard is FIPS 55-3. Each two-digit code uniquely identifies a state, territory, or commonwealth within or of the [[United States|U.S.]]. These codes are used by the [[United States Census Bureau|U.S. Census Bureau]], by the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]] to form milk-processing plant numbers, some [[cash registers]] during check approval, and in the [[Emergency Alert System]], and were assigned by [[NIST]]. Additional numbers used with the EAS for [[territorial waters]] of the U.S. were assigned by the [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]], but are not part of the FIPS standard. Two-''letter'' [[state codes]] are used as [[U.S. postal abbreviations|postal abbreviations]] by the [[United States Postal Service]] with the exception of UM which it does not use. The various minor outlying islands have a second two digit code besides the one used for them as a group.