How does Azure Maps utilize FIPS codes when differentiating between state and counties?

Question

How does Azure Maps API use the FIPS code information? My team is using a custom field to specify geospatial information related to our work items that is fed to Power BI creating a visual map report. Some work items cover the entire state while the rest are specific to one or more counties. At the moment, Azure Maps seems to not be able to differentiate between a state FIPS code (using Alabama as an example: 01000) versus county-level codes (Florida, Alachua County: 12001) on the same visual map. Is there a specific way to format this column of my data to allow Azure Maps to better read the data? Thanks

Answer 1

Azure Maps is a global geospatial service and FIPS codes are USA Census data specific. As such, FIPS codes are not used or supported by Azure Maps. Note that county level FIPS code are 5 digital numbers which is commonly used as zip codes/postal codes in several countries, and since geocoders are address focused, they will most likely interpret FIPS codes as such.

That said, there is a fairly small list of FIPS codes in the US and it wouldn't take much to create a simple look up table in your database and then joining it with your business data. This would likely work really well.