County Map with Cities

Interactive map of every US county with all cities and towns inside it labeled by population. Search any of 3,143 counties, see demographics, and download the complete city list as CSV. Free, unlimited, no sign-up.

County Map with Cities

Search a county or click the map to see all cities and towns inside it

🇺🇸United States only

County

Labels:

Min population:

Loading city database...

Search for a US county above, or click anywhere on the map, to see every city and town inside it.

Definition

What does this map show?

It shows the boundary of any US county along with every city, town, village, and Census-designated place inside it, sized and labeled by population. Includes a full demographic profile and an exportable city list.

Coverage

Which counties are covered?

All 3,143 US county-equivalents — including Louisiana parishes, Alaska boroughs, Virginia independent cities, and the District of Columbia. Cities come from US Census ACS via SimpleMaps (27,722 populated places).

Use case

When should I use this?

Sales territory mapping, school district planning, journalism and research, real estate market analysis, political organizing, candidate sourcing, and any time you need a clean visual of "what cities are in this county".

Cost

Is it free?

Yes — no sign-up, no API key, no usage limits. Equivalent county-level mapping in Esri or Caliper costs $1,000+/year. This tool runs entirely in your browser after a one-time data load.

On this page

What this map shows
Counties vs cities — the relationship
How to use the tool
Largest counties by population
Use cases & worked examples
Methodology
How this compares to alternatives
Limitations & accuracy notes
Glossary
Frequently asked questions

What this map shows

County map with cities is the answer to the surprisingly hard question: "what cities are in this county?" County websites usually list a few; Wikipedia buries the rest in prose; Google Maps shows you a zoomable map with no county boundaries. This tool fills that gap with an interactive map of any US county, with every city, town, village, and Census-designated place inside it drawn as a labeled marker sized by population.

For each county, the tool shows: the official boundary polygon (from US Census TIGER/Line), every populated place inside it sized by population, a demographic card with population/area/density/income/age/education/poverty, the county seat, and a sortable table of every city with its share of the county's total population. The CSV export is ready to drop into a spreadsheet, CRM, or BI tool.

All 3,143 US county-equivalents are included — counties, Louisiana parishes, Alaska boroughs, Virginia independent cities, and DC. The data loads once into your browser, after which switching between counties is instant. No sign-up, no API key, no rate limit.

Counties vs cities — the relationship

US counties and cities have a messy relationship that often confuses people. The short version:

Counties contain cities, mostly. A typical county has 5–50 incorporated cities inside its boundaries plus a handful of unincorporated CDPs.
Cities can span counties. Some cities (Atlanta GA, Kansas City MO, NYC) cross county lines. The dataset here assigns each city to its primary county — the one with most of its population.
NYC is five counties. Each borough is its own county-equivalent: Manhattan = New York County, Brooklyn = Kings County, Queens = Queens County, Bronx = Bronx County, Staten Island = Richmond County.
Some cities are counties. Independent cities (mostly in Virginia, plus Baltimore MD, St. Louis MO, Carson City NV) are not part of any county — they are their own county-equivalent. They appear in this tool as their own "county".
Not every place is a city. The Census tracks ~19,500 incorporated places + ~10,000 Census-designated places (CDPs). Both appear in the city list — CDPs are how the Census reports places like Silver Spring MD that have no formal government.

How to use this tool

Pick a county

Type a county name in the search box ("Cook County", "Travis County, TX") and click a suggestion. The dropdown shows population, city count, and state for each match. You can also click anywhere on the map to pick the county under your cursor.

Adjust display options

Choose whether to label the top 10 cities, all cities, or none. Set a minimum population (1K, 5K, 25K, 100K) to hide tiny villages. The map redraws instantly.

Read the profile and export

A demographic card shows population, area, density, income, age, education, and poverty. The cities table lists every city/town in the county sorted by population, with the county seat highlighted. Download the city list as CSV for spreadsheets or CRMs.

The largest US counties — useful starting points

These are the most-populated US counties — search any of them above to see the full city list. Numbers are approximate and refresh with each Census ACS release.

County	State	Population	Cities	Largest city
Los Angeles	CA	~9.8M	133	Los Angeles
Cook	IL	~5.2M	155	Chicago
Harris	TX	~4.7M	40	Houston
Maricopa	AZ	~4.5M	40	Phoenix
San Diego	CA	~3.3M	120	San Diego
Orange	CA	~3.2M	40	Anaheim
Miami-Dade	FL	~2.7M	80	Miami
Kings (Brooklyn)	NY	~2.6M	12	Brooklyn
Dallas	TX	~2.6M	50	Dallas
Queens	NY	~2.3M	60	Queens
Riverside	CA	~2.4M	120	Riverside
Travis	TX	~1.3M	30	Austin

Who needs a county map with cities

1. Sales territory and route planning

Sales managers carve up the country into county-based territories and need a city list per county to brief reps, plan visits, and load CRMs. The CSV export drops straight into Salesforce, HubSpot, or routing tools like Routific.

EXAMPLE

County: Travis County, TX. Cities: ~30, total population 1.3M, county seat Austin. The CSV gives the rep a one-page weekly route across Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park, and Lakeway.

2. Real estate and market analysis

Brokers, investors, and developers analyze counties to compare submarkets. The city map plus median income, density, and home value gives fast context — which cities inside this county are upscale, which are working-class, and where the growth is happening.

3. Political organizing and journalism

Campaign organizers and reporters use county maps to plan ground game and find sources. A county view of cities helps ID where votes are concentrated and which local officials to talk to.

EXAMPLE

County: Maricopa, AZ. Cities: ~40, population 4.5M — the county that decided the 2020 Arizona presidential race. The city list shows where Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, and Tempe sit relative to one another.

4. School district and education planning

In states where districts are organized at the county level (Florida, Maryland, Nevada), this tool gives the entire student-feeder geography in one view. Educators and charter operators use it to plan outreach.

5. Public health and emergency planning

County health departments coordinate response across all cities in their jurisdiction. A clean visual of which cities to alert, where vaccination clinics should go, or which towns to evacuate is operationally useful.

6. Retail and franchise siting

Retailers and franchisors evaluating counties for expansion need to see which cities are inside the boundary, how big each is, and how clustered the population is. The size-by-population markers give an instant heat map.

7. Genealogy and family history

Family historians track ancestors by county because vital records, deeds, and census records are filed at the county level. A map of all the cities and towns in a county helps locate where ancestors lived and which courthouse holds their records.

8. Education and reference

Teachers, students, and trivia enthusiasts use the tool to learn US geography. Seeing all the cities in your home county labeled on a map is a fast way to internalize the relationships between places you've heard of.

Methodology

County boundaries

County polygons come from the US Census Bureau TIGER/Line shapefiles, distributed in topojson format via the us-atlas project (10 m resolution). The full file is ~1 MB and loads once into your browser. Each county feature carries its 5-digit FIPS code as its id, which is the join key to demographics and city data.

City data

City names, coordinates, and population come from the SimpleMaps US ZIP Codes database, aggregated to city level by population-weighted centroid. Each city is stamped with the FIPS code of the county where most of its population lives. The full dataset has 27,722 cities, towns, villages, and Census-designated places.

City filtering

When you pick a county, the tool filters the city dataset to countyFips === selectedFipsand sorts the result by population descending. The largest cities draw on top of smaller ones, and labels are sorted so the biggest cities take label priority when there's collision.

Demographic enrichment

Once a county is matched, the tool joins to counties.json — a pre-built file with population, area, density, median income, median age, college rate, poverty rate, county seat, and counts of cities and ZIPs for every US county.

How this compares to alternatives

County mapping with cities is offered by several tools, but most are paywalled or text-only. Here's an honest side-by-side.

Source	Free?	Visual	Bulk export	Sign-up	Notes
SimpleMapLab (this tool)	Yes	Map + sized markers + labels	CSV per county	No	Census-derived, runs in browser
Wikipedia county pages	Yes	Static thumbnail	No	No	City list often in prose, hard to extract
Census.gov QuickFacts	Yes	Tables only	Bulk download	No	Authoritative source, no city visualization
Google Maps	Yes	Map	No	Optional	No native county boundaries / city list
Esri / Caliper Maptitude	No	Full GIS	Unlimited	Paid	Industry standard, $1K+/year

Limitations & accuracy notes

Cities are points, not polygons.Each city is shown as a single dot at its population-weighted center. A large city like Houston extends 25+ miles end-to-end, but on this map it's a single sized marker.
Cities that span counties get one home.The dataset assigns each city to its primary county — the one with most of its population. A small fraction of a city's population may technically live in a neighboring county and not be counted in this view.
Population is annual, not real-time. Census ACS estimates lag by 1–3 years. Use this tool for planning and analysis, not for legal or compliance reporting.
Boundary precision is ~10 m. County polygons are simplified to ~10 m for fast browser rendering. Coastline and small island detail may be reduced compared to the original Census shapefiles.
Some counties have empty city counts. Very small or very rural counties may have only one or two populated places — sometimes zero with the minimum population filter on. Reset to "All" if a county looks empty.
Not all county seats are populated in the data.The seat field is filled where SimpleMaps has it; some less-common counties may not have a seat shown. This doesn't affect the boundary or city list.

Glossary

County: A primary subdivision of a US state, used for local government, courts, public health, and tax assessment. The US has 3,143 county-equivalents in total.
County seat: The town or city that hosts the county government and main courthouse. Highlighted with a "Seat" badge in the city table whenever the data is available.
Census-designated place (CDP): A populated area without its own government that the Census Bureau tracks for statistical purposes (e.g. Silver Spring MD, The Villages FL). These appear in the city list alongside incorporated cities.
Incorporated city: A city with its own legal government and charter — Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta. Treated as a city in the list.
FIPS code: A 5-digit Federal Information Processing Standard identifier for a county. First 2 digits = state, last 3 = county within state. The universal key for joining federal county data.
Population-weighted centroid: The "average" location of all residents inside a city, weighted by where they actually live. Each city marker on the map sits at this point — more accurate than the geometric center for large or oddly-shaped cities.
Density: People per square mile. For a county, computed as total population ÷ land area. Manhattan-area counties top 70,000/mi² while frontier counties drop below 1/mi².
Independent city: A city that is not part of any county, treated as a county-equivalent in federal data. Most are in Virginia (39); also Baltimore MD, St. Louis MO, Carson City NV.

Related tools and resources

For the inverse question — "what county is this address in?" — use Address to County Lookup. To find every city inside a circular area instead of a county boundary, use Find Cities in Radius. For aggregate population and demographics inside a radius, use Population Within Radius. Browsing by state? Each state has a county directory:

California Texas Florida New York Pennsylvania Illinois Ohio Georgia North Carolina Michigan New Jersey Virginia Washington Arizona Massachusetts Tennessee

Frequently asked questions

All 3,143 US county-equivalents — including Louisiana parishes, Alaska boroughs and census areas, Virginia independent cities, and the District of Columbia. The boundary data is from the US Census Bureau TIGER/Line shapefiles via us-atlas.

Every populated place the Census Bureau tracks inside each county — incorporated cities, towns, villages, townships, boroughs, and Census-designated places (CDPs). The total across all 3,143 counties is 27,722 cities and towns.

Each city marker is sized logarithmically by population. A city of 1M shows roughly 4× the radius of a city of 10K. This gives an instant visual sense of where the population is concentrated inside the county.

Type its name in the search box — autocomplete suggestions appear after 2 characters. You can search by county name only ("Cook"), or include the state ("Cook County, IL") to narrow the results. You can also click anywhere on the map to pick the county under your cursor.

The map symbol layer is set to allow text to be optional and to hide overlapping labels — at low zoom levels, only the largest cities can fit without colliding. Switch the label mode to "Top 10" to keep the biggest cities labeled even when zoomed out, or "All cities" to force every label.

PO Box-only ZIPs and unique ZIPs (single buildings) have no residential population in Census ACS data and are excluded. If you raise the "Min population" filter above zero, smaller villages will also be hidden — set it back to "All" to see everything.

A city is assigned to its primary county in the SimpleMaps dataset (the county where most of its population lives). A city like New York City actually spans 5 counties (boroughs), and the tool reflects this — search "Kings County" to see Brooklyn, "Queens County" to see Queens, etc.

It marks the city or town that serves as the county seat — where the county government and main courthouse are located. Important for legal filings, recording fees, vital records, and historic context. Not every county in the dataset has a seat field populated.

Yes — click "Download CSV" to get every visible city in the county with name, state, population, ZIP count, and metro area. Open in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or any spreadsheet app.

The radius tool finds cities inside any circle you draw, regardless of jurisdiction. This tool shows cities inside legal county boundaries, which matters for tax, school district, court venue, and political reporting where the line itself is decisive.

Population, area, income, age, education, and poverty rate are from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) via SimpleMaps. Boundary polygons are 2020 Census TIGER/Line shapefiles via us-atlas.

County boundaries refresh after each decennial Census (most recent: 2020). Demographics and city populations refresh annually with each new ACS release, typically with a 1–2 year lag.

Cities on US state lines or county lines can be ambiguous — some sit in multiple counties. The dataset assigns each city to one primary county. If you need precise boundary handling, use the address-to-county lookup tool with a specific street address instead.

No. County boundaries and city data are US-only. Other countries use different administrative subdivisions — UK counties, Canadian census divisions, German Landkreise, etc.

Yes. County boundary data from US Census TIGER is public domain. SimpleMaps US ZIPs Basic data is free for commercial use under their license. Attribution to SimpleMapLab is appreciated where reasonable.

Yes. The county boundary file (~1 MB) and the city dataset (~4.5 MB) load once into your browser. After that, every county switch is instant — no server roundtrip, no rate limits.

Currently no — link sharing of state (selected county in the URL hash) is on the roadmap. For now, copy the URL of your state county directory or download the CSV to share results.

Some cities have multiple postal city names in USPS data. We aggregate by the primary city name and state, so "St. Louis" and "Saint Louis" are kept separate where they exist. If you don't see a city, try alternate spellings.

Both. Census-designated places (CDPs) — populated areas without their own government — appear in the city list alongside incorporated cities. CDPs are how the Census tracks places like Silver Spring MD and Bethesda MD.

Yes — the search, map, hover popups, demographic cards, and CSV export all work on phones and tablets. On touch devices, hover becomes a tap on the marker.

Data sources & methodology

County boundary polygons from the US Census Bureau TIGER/Line shapefiles, distributed via us-atlas. City names, coordinates, and population from the SimpleMaps US ZIP Codes Database, aggregated to city level by population-weighted centroid. Demographics from the US Census American Community Survey via SimpleMaps. Map rendering via MapLibre GL JS with OpenFreeMap tiles. County selection via inline ray-casting point-in-polygon (no library dependency).