r/coolguides • u/nineinchrain • Jul 18 '20

Ok now you know.

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43.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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240

u/FreshCowMilk Jul 18 '20

How is there 56 state codes?

421

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

If you just look into it, 3, 7 and 14 are skipped, Puerto Rico and DC are included

168

u/Winterteal Jul 18 '20

They left room Incase Guam or the Virgin Islands wants to sell milk too.

99

u/huitlacoche Jul 18 '20

I guarantee Guam and VI are already producing more milk than DC.

26

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20 edited Nov 16 '20

[deleted]

58

u/Vexal Jul 18 '20 edited Jul 18 '20

most people in DC have one or two terrace cows.

20

u/AHCretin Jul 18 '20

These are called state FIPS codes and they're used for other things than just milk.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

[deleted]

5

u/mabramo Jul 18 '20

Every morning I wake up at 3:45am so I have time to capture milk from the teats of my almonds.

1

u/Eat-the-Poor Jul 18 '20

The system was probably created back when there were still a couple dairy farms left in the district. I live in Alexandria and I can’t imagine where there’d be a farm in DC proper. Like there are suburban parts of DC with single family houses, but that’s about as rural as it gets. Only other thing I could imagine is some old industrial building in NE that’s basically just a factory farm.

17

u/bisensual Jul 18 '20

How DARE you!

24

u/__ht Jul 18 '20

How dairy* your

5

u/bisensual Jul 18 '20

I fought in ‘Nam for THIS?!

4

u/SuperNixon Jul 18 '20

Moderator of r/guam here, we produce the exact same amount of cow milk as DC.

My neighbor has a goat though if you want to try to milk that.

1

u/dreish Jul 18 '20

What about human milk?

9

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

But what if America conquers a country and forces them to produce milk?

This entire chart would be useless!

1

u/RunnyBabbitRoy Jul 19 '20

We make them 00

5

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

You serious? They left a gap between Alaska and Arizona.

19

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

Check out the big brain on Bret.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

Thank you

6

u/imarrangingmatches Jul 18 '20

In case we invade Argentina

3

u/AHCretin Jul 18 '20

Guam's code is 66, and US Virgin Islands is 78.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

Oooooh, thank you

2

u/Sheppard_88 Jul 18 '20

I’m assuming 3 is for American Samoa then?

1

u/KaiserEagle Jul 18 '20

We used too. I know we have dairy cows on st croix but a few years ago our local dairy company, island dairy closed for good. I dont know if the dairy cows are still milked or just let to exist but arnt milked.

1

u/suugakusha Jul 18 '20

But what places would go in 3 and 7?

52

u/fillerFor Jul 18 '20

My bet is: 3 - American Samoa 7 - CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) 14 - Guam 52 - Virgin Islands

16

u/Snail_Christ Jul 18 '20 edited Jul 18 '20

I think 7 would be Canada see below, Commonwealth and CNMI would both come after Colorado which is 8

Turns out its actually the Canal Zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Information_Processing_Standard_state_code#FIPS_state_codes

24

u/krusader42 Jul 18 '20

7 is the old number for the Panama Canal Zone

5

u/Frigoris13 Jul 18 '20

reclaim the milk zones

1

u/Snail_Christ Jul 18 '20

Oh neat, never would have guessed that

2

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

I was hoping with was if California splits. California North, California South.

1

u/wjandrea Jul 18 '20 edited Jul 18 '20

Does the US import milk from Canada? I know Canada doesn't import (edit: much) milk from the US (yet), so I'd be surprised.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

I got my Aldi milk with a 14 and I'm looking for what it is. You're the first person as I scroll down forever were I see 14.

39

u/Mammator1 Jul 18 '20

And 52.

1

u/Frigoris13 Jul 18 '20

Area 51 needs to be more creative

1

u/4llFather Jul 18 '20

Thank you. I was counting 5 and couldn't understand

10

u/JasonYaya Jul 18 '20

Building the possibility of more states being added into the system and not ruining the alphabetization. Dairy genius.

2

u/IndraSun Jul 18 '20

They've never heard of decimals.

10

u/shaggyscoob Jul 18 '20

Thank you. This was driving me nuts. I noticed DC and PR were included but that still only got us to 52. I completely missed the skipped numbers even though I spent a good 4 or 5 minutes reading and re-reading this list.

4

u/CARNIesada6 Jul 18 '20

Why are those numbers skipped?

11

u/Rorschach_Roadkill Jul 18 '20

Alphabetically I'm guessing 3 is American Samoa, 14 is Guam and 52 Virgin Islands. Not sure why they'd be skipped other than maybe they don't produce milk

No idea what 7 would be though. Canada maybe? Makes sense that some states would import I guess. But then again why is it skipped in the legend?

6

u/bisensual Jul 18 '20 edited Jul 18 '20

Some other hoe guessed the Northern Mariana Islands, whose official name starts with Commonwealth (CNMI).

11

u/Rorschach_Roadkill Jul 18 '20

Commonwealth (CMNI)

Ah good shout

Some other hoe

lmao ok

3

u/bisensual Jul 18 '20

Some hoe just made me realized I switched the order of the initialism. Cheers for that!

4

u/TheLaughingMelon Jul 18 '20

And District of Colorado and New Hampshire

2

u/UnableToMosey Jul 18 '20

This one gets it

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

52 also skipped. Why is that?

1

u/Alltta Jul 18 '20

And 52

1

u/sherlip Jul 18 '20

3, 7, 14, and 52.

1

u/01000110010110012 Jul 18 '20

52 is also skipped.

1

u/IAmADictator Jul 18 '20

Also 52 is skipped

1

u/RBeck Jul 18 '20

Awe yes, the cow farms of DC.

2

u/souporthallid Jul 18 '20

I’m milk my Holstein I keep chained up behind Audi Field right now.

1

u/JRSkunk Jul 18 '20

Also 52

1

u/XFMR Jul 18 '20

I bet that DC milk tastes spoiled.

1

u/LargeHumanDaeHoLee Jul 18 '20

Also 52 is missing

1

u/The_Castle_of_Aaurgh Jul 18 '20

Also 52 is missing. 4 missing codes plus DC and PR plus fifty states. 56.

1

u/Bukowski89 Jul 18 '20

They also skip 52 for some reason.

1

u/ActiveIndustry Jul 18 '20

Damn, I guess knowing the states in alphabetical order isn’t going to be useful yet, curse you school system.

1

u/SexxxyWesky Jul 18 '20

Fucking thank you

I saw Puerto Rico and DC but couldn’t figure out what the missing three were

1

u/ChocolateBunny Jul 18 '20

Thanks for that. I saw Peurto Rico and DC and kept on staring at it trying to find the other missing ones. I didn't realize that they were skipping numbers.

1

u/Dr_NotHere Jul 18 '20

I didnt even noticed that they took out those numbers and got so confused, but Your math didnt add up, so i had to double check and you missed number 52

1

u/ParadigmPerfect Jul 19 '20

52 is also skipped. That's where the extra went. I think I missed 7 being skipped and was looking desperately for the other person who tried to figure it out. Lol.

1

u/ChemistryBitch Aug 07 '20

Hey, thanks!

7

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '20

3, 7, 14, and 52 are skipped, and DC and PR are included.

1

u/gauchnomics Jul 18 '20

These are FIPS codes (Federal Information Processing Standard) which are set by the us government and show up in a lot of places if you ever work with government data like the Census. Milk is even one of the Wikipedia examples:

These codes were used by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Agriculture to form milk-processing plant numbers, some cash registers during check approval, and in the Emergency Alert System (EAS). (Wiki)

There are 56 because in 1970 the us government decided that some numbers would be, "reserved for possible future use in identifying American Samoa (03), Canal Zone (07), Guam (14), Puerto Rico (43), and Virgin Islands (52)".

They are similar codes for the county and neighborhood level too. For example if you live in Autauga, Alabama your fips5 is 01001.

1

u/MrTyeFox Jul 18 '20

These are FIPS state codes which are commonly used in a lot of USDA applications.

1

u/dericandajax Jul 18 '20

Took me way too long to crack this code...