1.1 City-county exceptions

As noted, the territory of most counties includes that of municipalities, within and smaller than the respective counties. However, there are three kinds of exceptions to this arrangement:

1. By a series of annexations or other mergers, a city government may come to have exactly the same territory as the county that contains it, even though they remain separate governments. This is nearly the case in Jacksonville, Florida, which has incorporated all of Duval County except for four smaller suburban cities.
2. Several cities and counties around the country have unified their governments; these consolidated city-county governments are considered both a city and a county under state law. Prominent examples include Denver, Colorado and San Francisco, California.
   • The area now forming the five boroughs of New York City consisted, into the late 19th century, of four typical counties and part of a fifth, each containing at least one city or town. These are still counties in name and in state law; nevertheless, since 1898 they have been entirely contained within the boundaries of the city, and following the creation of Bronx County in 1914, each borough now corresponds exactly to one county.
3. In several states, (including Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas) a city may annex land within an adjacent county. That land is then subject to city government, but the respective counties continue to provide county-specific services and residents vote for county officials in the respective counties.
   • In Michigan, the city may petition to change the county boundaries to accord with the city boundaries. Historically, however, this has rarely been exercised. There are many cities that span county boundaries in Michigan.

2 Statistics

Main article: County statistics of the United States

By area, the largest county in the United States is North Slope Borough, Alaska at 94,763 square miles (245,435 km²) and the smallest county in the United States is Kalawao County, Hawaii at 13 square miles (34 km²).

However, when county equivalents are included, both lose their status. The largest county equivalent by area is Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska at 147,843 square miles (382,912 km²) and the smallest is the independent city of Falls Church, Virginia at 2.0 square miles (5 km²).

The most populous county (or county equivalent) is Los Angeles County, California with 9,519,338 people as of 2000, and the least populous county is Loving County, Texas with 67 people as of 2000.

3 Scope of power

The power of county governments varies widely from state to state, as does the relationship between counties and incorporated cities.

• In New York:
  • In contrast to other counties of New York state, the powers of the five boroughs of New York City are very limited, and in nearly all respects subordinate to the city's.
• In New England:
  • Counties function at most as judicial court districts (in Connecticut and Rhode Island, they have lost even those functions) and most government power below the state level is in the hands of towns and cities.
• In Hawaii:
  • The county is the municipal level of government; there are no incorporated cities other than the consolidated City & County of Honolulu.
• In California:
  • The county is the default unit of local government (all parts of the state's land are allocated to one of the state's 58 counties). Each county has a Board of Supervisors and is subject to mandatory duties under state law to provide its residents with services like law enforcement, health care, road maintenance, and so on.
  • If residents of a sufficiently large piece of unincorporated county land do not like their county's resource allocation decisions, they can incorporate a city. The city government then takes some of the tax revenue that would have gone to the county, and can impose additional taxes on its residents. It can then choose to provide almost all the services usually provided by the county (and more), or provide only a few and let the county do the rest.
  • Due to geographical variations in property tax and sales tax revenue (the primary revenue source for cities and counties) and differing attitudes towards priorities, there are interesting variations in the levels of various services from one city to the next. For example, the City of Santa Monica is far more generous when it comes to helping the homeless than other cities in Los Angeles County or the county government. But most cities in Los Angeles County and the County itself all have terrible public libraries. In contrast, Santa Clara County has one of the top public library systems in the U.S., but has a critical shortage of affordable housing.

4 Lists of counties by state

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia

Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland

Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey

New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina

South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

5 Number of counties per state

Southern and Midwestern states generally tend to have more counties than Western or Northern states. The list below also includes county-equivalents.

254 - Texas 159 - Georgia 134 - Virginia 120 - Kentucky 115 - Missouri 105 - Kansas 102 - Illinois 100 - N. Carolina 99 - Iowa 95 - Tennessee

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

67 - Florida 67 - Alabama 66 - S. Dakota 64 - 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 29 - Utah 27 - Alaska 24 - Maryland 23 - Wyoming 21 - New Jersey

17 - Nevada 16 - Maine 15 - Arizona 14 - Vermont 14 - Massachusetts 10 - New Hampshire 8 - Connecticut 5 - Hawaii 5 - Rhode Island 3 - Delaware

6 County name etymologies

Main article: Lists of U.S. county name etymologies

Many states have counties named after U.S. presidents such as Washington, Madison, Polk, Jefferson, etc. Counties are also commonly named after famous individuals, local Native American tribes once in the area, cities located within the county, and land or water features ( Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, meaning "Fat Hill" in Spanish, and Lake County, Illinois, on Lake Michigan).

7 See also

• County (for other countries)
• County statistics of the United States
• List of U.S. counties that share names with U.S. states
• List of extinct U.S. counties
• Political divisions of the United States
• List of counties in alphabetical order

8 External links

• National Association of Counties
• County Government: Management and Services
• Counties in the United States
• Ranking Tables for Counties

United States, Counties of the U.S. counties Political divisions of the United States

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