County Statistics Of The United States
In 48 of the 50 states of the United States, the county is used for the level of local government immediately below the state itself. Louisiana uses parishes, and Alaska uses boroughs. In several states in New England, some or all counties within states have no governments of their own; the counties continue to exist as legal entities, however, and are used by states for some administrative functions and by the United States Census bureau for statistical analysis. There are 3,143 counties and county-equivalent administrative units in total.
There are 42 independent cities in the United States. In Virginia, any municipality that is incorporated as a city legally becomes independent of any county. Except where indicated, the statistics below do not include Virginia's 39 independent cities. The only Virginia statistic affected is smallest county by area; if independent cities are included, Falls Church becomes the smallest county in the state, and in fact the smallest county-level political subdivision in the United States, at 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2). The other three independent cities in other states (Baltimore, Maryland; Carson City, Nevada; and St. Louis, Missouri) are also not included in these lists. The District of Columbia is included.
In Alaska, most of the land area of the state has no county-level government. Those parts of the state are divided by the United States Census Bureau into census areas, which are not the same as boroughs. The state's largest statistical division by area is the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, which is larger than any of the state's boroughs. Although Anchorage is called a municipality, it is considered a consolidated city and borough.
Although most U.S. counties were created during the 19th century, the most recent county in the United States is Broomfield County in Colorado, created in 2001.
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