County (United States)

A county, in the United States, is a political subdivision and form of government that is right below the state. 48 out of the 50 states in the United States use counties. Louisiana calls its counties parishes while Alaska got rid of counties and only uses boroughs.^[1] Both of these are equal to the county. Connecticut has counties, but these no longer exist as statistical entities, having been replaced in 2022 by what the state calls "councils of governments".^[2] The list that the U.S. Census Bureau keeps that lists all of the counties in the United States says that there are 3,481 counties or other kinds of divisions that are equal to the county in the United States.^[source?]^[3]

The midwestern and northeastern states in the United States divide the county further into townships or towns, some of which have municipalities. The place where the county government and courts are is called the county seat (Alaska: "borough seat", Louisiana: "parish seat", Vermont: sometimes "shire town").

On average, a county in the United States has a population of around 100,000 people. The county that has the most people living in it is Los Angeles County, California, where over 10 million people live. The county that has the fewest people living in it is Loving County, Texas, where as of the 2020 United States Census, 64 people live.

The average number of counties in each state is 62. Delaware has the fewest with only 3. Texas has the most counties with 254.^[4]

These pages list all of the counties in each state:

254 – Texas
159 – Georgia
120 – Kentucky
115^[a] – Missouri
105 – Kansas
102 – Illinois
100 – North Carolina
99 – Iowa
95 – Tennessee
95^[b] – Virginia ^[5]

93 – Nebraska
92 – Indiana
88 – Ohio
87 – Minnesota
83 – Michigan
82 – Mississippi
77 – Oklahoma
75 – Arkansas
72 – Wisconsin
67 – Pennsylvania

67 – Florida ^[6]
67 – Alabama
66 – South Dakota
64^[c] – Louisiana
64 – Colorado
62 – New York
58 – California
56 – Montana
55 – West Virginia
53 – North Dakota

46 – South Carolina
44 – Idaho
39 – Washington
36 – Oregon
33 – New Mexico
30^[d] – Alaska
29 – Utah
24^[e] – Maryland
23 – Wyoming
21 – New Jersey

17^[f] – Nevada
16 – Maine
15 – Arizona
14 – Vermont
14 – Massachusetts
10 – New Hampshire
8^[g] – Connecticut (see also: Councils of governments in Connecticut on the English Wikipedia)
5 – Rhode Island
5 – Hawaii
3 – Delaware

^[1]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 "An Overview of County Government". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on 2008-07-08. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
↑ "Change to County-Equivalents in the State of Connecticut". Federal Register. June 6, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
↑ "How many counties are in the United States?". www.usgs.gov. Archived from the original on 2020-04-01. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
↑ "How Many Counties are in Your State?". Click and Learn. Archived from the original on 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2007-04-24.
↑ "Counties: Geography of Virginia". www.virginiaplaces.org.
↑ "State of Florida.com - Florida Counties". www.stateofflorida.com.
↑ "Why Does Louisiana Have Parishes Instead of Counties?". WorldAtlas. Retrieved 2020-04-24.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[NACO_overview-1] 1.0 ^1.1 "An Overview of County Government". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on 2008-07-08. Retrieved 2007-08-17.

[2] "Change to County-Equivalents in the State of Connecticut". Federal Register. June 6, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2023.

[3] "How many counties are in the United States?". www.usgs.gov. Archived from the original on 2020-04-01. Retrieved 2020-04-20.

[4] "How Many Counties are in Your State?". Click and Learn. Archived from the original on 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2007-04-24.

[7] "Counties: Geography of Virginia". www.virginiaplaces.org.

[8] "State of Florida.com - Florida Counties". www.stateofflorida.com.

[9] "Why Does Louisiana Have Parishes Instead of Counties?". WorldAtlas. Retrieved 2020-04-24.

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County (United States)

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