diff --git a/changelog_entry.yaml b/changelog_entry.yaml
index e69de29b..83ae728d 100644
--- a/changelog_entry.yaml
+++ b/changelog_entry.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+- bump: patch
+  changes:
+    changed:
+    - Explicitly specified encoding while building county FIPS dataset
+    removed:
+    - Unneeded build of county FIPS dataset to local folder
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/policyengine_us_data/geography/county_fips.py b/policyengine_us_data/geography/county_fips.py
index 644bf8a2..3e5ac518 100644
--- a/policyengine_us_data/geography/county_fips.py
+++ b/policyengine_us_data/geography/county_fips.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ def generate_county_fips_2020_dataset():
         raise ValueError(
             f"Failed to download county FIPS codes: {response.status_code}"
         )
+    response.encoding = "utf-8"
 
     county_fips_raw = StringIO(response.text)
 
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ def generate_county_fips_2020_dataset():
             "COUNTYFP": str,
             "COUNTYNAME": str,
         },
+        encoding="utf-8",
     )
 
     county_fips = county_fips.rename(
@@ -66,7 +68,9 @@ def generate_county_fips_2020_dataset():
     csv_buffer = BytesIO()
 
     # Save CSV into buffer object and reset pointer
-    county_fips.to_csv(csv_buffer, index=False, compression="gzip")
+    county_fips.to_csv(
+        csv_buffer, index=False, compression="gzip", encoding="utf-8"
+    )
     csv_buffer.seek(0)
 
     # Upload to Hugging Face
@@ -76,8 +80,6 @@ def generate_county_fips_2020_dataset():
         repo_file_path="county_fips_2020.csv.gz",
     )
 
-    county_fips.to_csv(LOCAL_FOLDER / "county_fips.csv.gz", compression="gzip")
-
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     generate_county_fips_2020_dataset()
diff --git a/policyengine_us_data/tests/test_datasets/test_county_fips.py b/policyengine_us_data/tests/test_datasets/test_county_fips.py
index 72748a2b..ad1f10c5 100644
--- a/policyengine_us_data/tests/test_datasets/test_county_fips.py
+++ b/policyengine_us_data/tests/test_datasets/test_county_fips.py
@@ -93,10 +93,6 @@ def test_successful_download_and_processing(
     # Check that upload_to_hf was called
     mock_upload_to_hf.assert_called_once()
 
-    # Check that to_csv was called with the right path
-    local_csv_call = mock_to_csv.call_args_list[-1]
-    assert str(LOCAL_FOLDER / "county_fips.csv.gz") in str(local_csv_call)
-
 
 def test_download_failure():
     """Test handling of download failure"""