 __notoc__   the us state of north carolina is divided into 100 counties. north carolina ranks 29th in size by area, but has the seventh most counties in the country. following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, charles ii of england rewarded eight persons on march 24, 1663, for their faithful support in his efforts to regain the throne of england. he granted the eight grantees, called lords proprietor, the land called carolina, in honor of charles i, his father. the province of carolina from 1663 to 1729, was a north american british colony. around 1729, the province of north carolina became a separate entity from the province of south carolina. north carolina county history stretches over 340 years, beginning in 1668 with the creation of albemarle county and ending with the 1911 creation of avery and hoke counties. five counties have since been divided or abolished altogether, the last being dobbs county in 1791. the federal information processing standard (fips), which is used by the united states government to uniquely identify states and counties, is provided with each entry. north carolina's fips code is 37, which when combined with the county code is written as 37xxx. ==list== {| class="wikitable sortable" cellpadding="1" style="margin:auto; border:#88a; background:#f7f8ff; padding:5px; font-size:95%; text-align:center;" |- style="background:#ccf;" ! style="vertical-align: bottom;"|county ! style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 65px;" | fips code ! style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 75px;" | county seat ! style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50px;" | created ! style="vertical-align:bottom;"| origin ! style=&q
Lists_of_U.S._counties_by_state North_Carolina_counties North_Carolina_geography-related_lists