How Many Counties Are in Each US State?

The United States has 3,143 counties and county-equivalents spread across 50 states and the District of Columbia. The term "county-equivalent" covers Louisiana's parishes, Alaska's boroughs and census areas, and Virginia's independent cities.

The map — counties per state at a glance

Each US state is shaded by its total county count, on a square-root scale so the smallest states (Delaware, DC, Hawaii) remain visible alongside Texas's 254. Hover any state for details.

Counties are the primary administrative division below the state level. They determine your tax jurisdiction, school district boundaries, court system, voter registration, and emergency services. Knowing your county is essential for jury duty notices, property taxes, building permits, and insurance quotes.

Top 10 states by county count

Texas's 254 counties reflect its history as an independent republic that subdivided land for local governance. Georgia (159) and Kentucky (120) round out the top three by counties alone; Virginia ranks among the top when its 38 independent cities are counted as county-equivalents (95 counties + 38 independent cities = 133 county-equivalents in total). See the full county boundaries on our interactive US county map.

States with the fewest counties

Delaware's three counties — New Castle, Kent, and Sussex — make it the simplest state for county-level analysis. Hawaii has 5 county-equivalents (Hawaii, Honolulu, Kauai, Maui, and the tiny Kalawao County on the Kalaupapa peninsula); Rhode Island has 5 counties but does not use them for local government.

Complete list: all 50 states

Why do county counts vary so much?

County boundaries are a product of history, not a federal standard. States created in the colonial era (the original 13) generally have fewer, larger counties. States carved from western territories in the 19th century — like Texas and Georgia — subdivided land more aggressively so that every resident could reach the county seat within a day's horseback ride.

Some states have consolidated or merged counties over time. Connecticut abolished county government in 1960, though the 8 county boundaries still exist for census and judicial purposes. Alaska's boroughs don't cover the entire state — the remainder is the "Unorganized Borough."

What are county-equivalents?

• Parishes — Louisiana uses 64 parishes instead of counties, a legacy of French and Spanish colonial administration.
• Boroughs — Alaska has 19 organized boroughs, plus the Unorganized Borough covering the rest of the state.
• Independent cities — Virginia has 38 cities that are not part of any county. Baltimore, St. Louis, and Carson City (NV) also operate independently.
• Census areas — Alaska has 11 census areas in the Unorganized Borough for statistical purposes.
• The District of Columbia — functions as a single county-equivalent for census and federal data.

Counties as administrative units

Most Americans interact with their county government more often than their state government, even when they don't realize it. The county recorder or register of deeds holds the chain of title to your home, the county clerk issues your marriage license and keeps the death certificates of your relatives, and the county assessor sets the taxable value that drives your annual property tax bill. When you're called for jury duty, the summons comes from a county court drawing names from the county's voter roll and DMV file.

Counties also run vital records (birth and death certificates), issue building permits in unincorporated areas, operate the local jail, maintain rural roads, and administer elections at the precinct level. In many states the county sheriff is the chief law-enforcement officer outside municipal boundaries, and the county coroner or medical examiner determines cause of death. None of this is uniform: Maryland and Tennessee centralize school districts at the county level, while California, Texas, and Illinois let independent districts cross county lines. New England towns handle most of what counties handle elsewhere, which is why Connecticut functions without active county government at all. If you're trying to figure out which office to call, the What County Am I In? tool is usually the right first step.

Why some states use different terms

Louisiana's parishes are a Catholic legacy: French and Spanish colonial administrators organized the territory through church parishes, and the 1807 territorial legislature kept the word when it formalized civil divisions. Alaska's boroughs come from the borough form of local government written into the 1959 state constitution, and large unsettled stretches simply fall into the catch-all Unorganized Borough. Virginia's 38 independent cities exist because the state's 1871 constitution let any city of 5,000 separate itself from its surrounding county. The Census Bureau wraps all of these — parishes, boroughs, census areas, independent cities, and DC — into the single statistical category "county-equivalent," which is why the official US total is 3,143 rather than the 3,007 you get from counting only entities literally called "counties."

What changed recently

County boundaries are remarkably stable, but they are not frozen. In 2022, Connecticut received Census Bureau approval to replace its 8 historical counties with 9 Councils of Governments as the official statistical geography, the first major county-level change in decades. Alaska's boroughs continue to expand into the Unorganized Borough as new communities incorporate. After each decennial census, county-level data is re-released with revised population, area, and boundary adjustments — the 2020 figures are the current baseline for federal funding formulas through the rest of the decade.

How to find your county

Use our free What County Am I In? tool. It uses your GPS or an address search to identify your county instantly. You can also look up any address with the Address to County Lookup, or explore county boundaries visually on the interactive county map.

Data source

County counts and populations are derived from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey via the SimpleMaps dataset. County boundary geometry comes from the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line shapefiles.

Frequently asked questions