Essex County, Massachusetts

Essex County, Massachusetts

Essex County is a county located in the northeastern part of the State of Massachusetts. As of the 2010 census, the population was 743,159. Prior to the dissolution of the county government in 1999, it had two county seats: Salem, with jurisdiction over the Southern Essex District, and Lawrence, with jurisdiction over the Northern Essex District. The county and the districts remain as administrative regions recognized by various agencies of the governmental substructure, which gathered vital statistics or disposed of judicial case loads under these geographic subdivisions, and are required to keep the records based on them. Salem and Lawrence are no longer county seats of government. However, the county subdivision has been utilized by some agencies. For example, the county as it was has been designated the Essex National Heritage Area by the National Park Service.