How Many Counties Are in the US? Counts for Every State

The United States has 3,144 counties and county equivalents: 3,143 in the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, which the Census Bureau treats as a single county equivalent. That is the count in the Census Bureau's 2026 Gazetteer file, which reflects boundaries as of January 1, 2026.

Of those, 2,999 are actually called counties. The other 145 are county equivalents: units that do the same statistical job but have a different name or legal form. Puerto Rico adds 78 municipios, which the Census Bureau also treats as county equivalents, but they are not included in the count of 3,144.

The count has not changed since 2022, when Connecticut's nine planning regions replaced its eight historical counties in Census data. Before that, most sources gave 3,143.

Where a state has no counties, or has places outside any county, the Census Bureau designates county equivalents so that every square foot of the country falls in exactly one county-level unit:

A few details trip people up. Virginia's independent cities are not part of any county, so a city such as Alexandria is a county equivalent on its own. Alaska's census areas have no county-style government at all; the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau defined them for statistics. Hawaii's five include Kalawao County, a tiny unit for the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai that has no county government of its own.

Texas has the most counties of any state with 254, followed by Georgia (159), Virginia (133, counting its 38 independent cities), Kentucky (120) and Missouri (115). The states with the fewest are Delaware (3), Hawaii and Rhode Island (5 each), Connecticut (9) and New Hampshire (10).

The number of counties says more about history than size. Texas has the most counties and is also huge, so the average Texas county still covers 1,029 square miles of land. Georgia packed 159 counties into a much smaller state; its average county is 363 square miles. At the other extreme, Arizona has only 15 counties for 113,656 square miles, an average of 7,577 square miles each.

The Texas county list and the Georgia county list show every county with its seat and population.

Counts are from the Census Bureau 2026 Gazetteer. Average land area divides each state's land area by its number of counties, and average population uses the July 1, 2025 state estimate.

Average county size varies almost a hundredfold between states. Dividing each state's land area by its number of counties:

• Largest average county: Alaska (19,047 sq mi), Arizona (7,577 sq mi), Nevada (6,462 sq mi), Wyoming (4,221 sq mi).
• Smallest average county: Rhode Island (207 sq mi), Virginia (297 sq mi), Kentucky (329 sq mi), New Jersey (350 sq mi).

Virginia's average is pulled down by its 38 independent cities, some of which cover only a few square miles. Population per county ranges just as widely: Delaware's three counties average 353,317 residents, while Texas's 254 average 124,842, and many rural Texas counties have only a few thousand people. For the extremes (Yukon-Koyukuk at 145,768 square miles, Loving County at 52 residents) see our list of the largest counties in the US.

Every county and equivalent has a five-digit FIPS code, the first two digits for the state and the last three for the county. Harris County, Texas is 48201; Los Angeles County is 06037. Datasets join on these codes rather than on names, which is why a renamed unit such as Kusilvak Census Area also received a new code.

County lists change slowly, but they do change. The Census Bureau's change log lists these since 2010:

• Connecticut (2022 data onward): the state's nine councils of governments, called planning regions, replaced its eight historical counties as county equivalents. Connecticut abolished county government in 1960, so the old counties had only survived as statistical and geographic units. You can see the switch in the Gazetteer: the 2020 file has 8 Connecticut counties, the 2026 file has 9 planning regions.
• Alaska, January 2, 2019: Valdez-Cordova Census Area was split into Chugach Census Area and Copper River Census Area.
• Alaska, July 1, 2015: Wade Hampton Census Area was renamed Kusilvak Census Area.
• South Dakota, May 1, 2015: Shannon County was renamed Oglala Lakota County.
• Virginia, July 1, 2013: Bedford city became a town and joined Bedford County.
• Alaska, January 3, 2013: Petersburg Borough was created from parts of two census areas.

A note on our own pages: the county maps on Open Map Lab are drawn from the Census Bureau's 2017 generalized boundary files, which still have Connecticut's 8 historical counties and the old Valdez-Cordova Census Area. So the Connecticut counties page lists 8 counties while this article counts 9 planning regions. Both are correct for their data vintage; for current statistics use the planning regions.

Search results give 3,007, 3,142, 3,143, 3,144, 3,222, 3,242 and other totals. They are usually counting different things:

• 3,143 vs 3,144: whether the District of Columbia is included, or whether Connecticut has 8 counties (pre-2022) or 9 planning regions.
• About 3,000: only units literally called "county", leaving out parishes, boroughs, census areas and independent cities.
• 3,222: the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico's 78 municipios, which is what Census data tables include when Puerto Rico is part of the release.
• Higher totals still: adding the county equivalents of the other territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the minor islands).

There is also a difference between counties as governments and counties as geography. Rhode Island and Connecticut have no county governments, and several Massachusetts counties were abolished as governments, yet all of them still exist as geographic units in Census data.

For a single address or your current location, the What County Am I In tool tests the point against county polygons and shows the distance to the nearest county line. For the bigger picture, the interactive US county map lets you click through all counties. Our guide on how to find your county covers the tricky cases: ZIP codes that span counties, independent cities and addresses near a boundary.