diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/src/opentelemetry/exporter/zipkin/__init__.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/src/opentelemetry/exporter/zipkin/__init__.py
index 9f42336ed..1e544bcda 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/src/opentelemetry/exporter/zipkin/__init__.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/src/opentelemetry/exporter/zipkin/__init__.py
@@ -184,9 +184,9 @@ class ZipkinSpanExporter(SpanExporter):
                 ] = span.instrumentation_info.version
 
             if span.status is not None:
-                zipkin_span["tags"]["otel.status_code"] = str(
-                    span.status.canonical_code.value
-                )
+                zipkin_span["tags"][
+                    "otel.status_code"
+                ] = span.status.canonical_code.value
                 if span.status.description is not None:
                     zipkin_span["tags"][
                         "otel.status_description"
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/tests/test_zipkin_exporter.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/tests/test_zipkin_exporter.py
index b36817f92..49d1c2ffe 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/tests/test_zipkin_exporter.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-zipkin/tests/test_zipkin_exporter.py
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ class TestZipkinSpanExporter(unittest.TestCase):
                     "key_bool": "False",
                     "key_string": "hello_world",
                     "key_float": "111.22",
-                    "otel.status_code": "2",
+                    "otel.status_code": 2,
                     "otel.status_description": "Example description",
                 },
                 "annotations": [
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ class TestZipkinSpanExporter(unittest.TestCase):
                 "kind": None,
                 "tags": {
                     "key_resource": "some_resource",
-                    "otel.status_code": "0",
+                    "otel.status_code": 0,
                 },
                 "annotations": None,
             },
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ class TestZipkinSpanExporter(unittest.TestCase):
                 "tags": {
                     "key_string": "hello_world",
                     "key_resource": "some_resource",
-                    "otel.status_code": "0",
+                    "otel.status_code": 0,
                 },
                 "annotations": None,
             },
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ class TestZipkinSpanExporter(unittest.TestCase):
                 "tags": {
                     "otel.instrumentation_library.name": "name",
                     "otel.instrumentation_library.version": "version",
-                    "otel.status_code": "0",
+                    "otel.status_code": 0,
                 },
                 "annotations": None,
             },
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ class TestZipkinSpanExporter(unittest.TestCase):
                 "duration": duration // 10 ** 3,
                 "localEndpoint": local_endpoint,
                 "kind": None,
-                "tags": {"otel.status_code": "0"},
+                "tags": {"otel.status_code": 0},
                 "annotations": None,
                 "debug": True,
                 "parentId": "0aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",