page_title: County statistics of the United States
section_title: Count
hierarchical_section_title: County statistics of the United States / Count
caption_attribution_description: Locator Map of Texas, United States
context_page_description: 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 3,242 counties and county equivalent administrative units in total, including the District of Columbia and 100 county-equivalents in the U.S. territories.
  There are 41 independent cities in the United States. In Virginia, any municipality that is incorporated as a city legally becomes independent of any county. Where indicated, the statistics below do not include Virginia's 38 independent cities.
  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.
context_section_description: This is the number of counties and county-equivalents for each state, the District of Columbia, the 5 inhabited territories of the United States, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.
  Lists of counties and county equivalents by number per political division:
  Total (50 states and District of Columbia): 3,142 (3,007 counties and 135 county equivalents)
  Total (50 states, District of Columbia and territories): 3,242 (3,007 counties and 235 county equivalents)
  Average number of counties per state (not including D.C. and the territories): 62.82 
  Average number of counties per state (including D.C. and the territories): 56.87
caption: Texas has 254 counties, the most of any state
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