- A FIPS number is a number given to easily identify a specific state and county. Each state is given their own five digit code; the first two represent the state. The acronym FIPS stands are "Federal Information Processing Series" (it is no longer considered the standard). The FIPS codes are easier to handle in information systems than actual county and state names.
- Sources:
- https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/ansi.html
- http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mirs/public/prods/maps/cnty_fips_def.htm
Processing Data:
I'd like to clarify that I did not panic during this lab while collecting and organizing my data for Indiana and Ohio counties. Acquiring different types of data (PDF, Excel, and text) really helped with this process. I was able to simply copy and paste the information I gathered, and it was not very time consuming! The longest part of the process was organizing all of the data so that the information processing systems will be able to identify it.
If I had to do this for a really big project, I would make sure I have data that I could easily copy and paste into an Excel worksheet that provides the years and the FIPS codes. The process of collecting the data definitely takes a lot of patience and attention. In order to do this, one would need to know how Excel works as well as the Census websites so the research and collecting processes would be simple.
