Understanding Primary Administrative Subdivisions in the United States
In the United States, counties represent the primary legal administrative subdivision of state government in 48 of the 50 states. However, cartographic and statistical definitions vary considerably across jurisdictions:
- Louisiana Parishes: Rooted in French and Spanish civil law, Louisiana divides its territory into 64 parishes rather than counties, functioning under police jury or home rule charters.
- Alaska Boroughs & Census Areas: Alaska features 19 organized boroughs that perform municipal functions across immense geographic distances, alongside an Unorganized Borough divided by the US Census Bureau into 11 statistical Census Areas.
- Connecticut Planning Regions: Effective with the 2024 boundary updates, Connecticut formally replaced its eight historic, non-functioning county boundaries with nine functional Planning Regions for all statistical and federal funding reporting.
- Independent Cities: The Commonwealth of Virginia contains 38 independent cities that are legally independent of any county organization, treated as county equivalents under Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 6-4.
All demographic and spatial data presented in Open Map Lab's state directories is compiled from US Census Bureau decennial census datasets and Census cartographic boundary files (generalized 1:10,000,000, 2017 edition).