Editing County (section)

===United States===
{{Main|County (United States)}}
{{See also|List of United States counties and county equivalents}}
[[File:Usa counties large.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|The 3,142 [[county (United States)|counties]] and county equivalents of the United States]]

Counties in [[U.S. state]]s are [[Administrative division|administrative]] or [[political subdivisions]] of the state in which their boundaries are drawn. In addition, the [[United States Census Bureau]] uses the term "county equivalent" to describe places that are comparable to counties, but called by different names.<ref name="US county equivalent">{{cite web|url=https://factfinder.census.gov/help/en/county_and_equivalent_entity.htm|title=County and equivalent entity|website=factfinder.census.gov|access-date=21 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322003032/https://factfinder.census.gov/help/en/county_and_equivalent_entity.htm|archive-date=22 March 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Forty-seven of the 50 U.S. states use the term "county", while Alaska, Connecticut, and Louisiana use the terms "[[List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska|borough]]", "[[Councils of governments in Connecticut|planning region]]", and "[[List of parishes in Louisiana|parish]]", respectively, for analogous jurisdictions. A ''[[consolidated city-county]]'', such as the [[San Francisco|City and County of San Francisco]], is formed when a city and county merge into one unified jurisdiction. Conversely, ''[[Independent city (United States)|independent cities]]'', including [[Baltimore]], [[St. Louis]], [[Carson City, Nevada|Carson City]], and all cities in [[Virginia]], legally belong to no county, i.e. no county even nominally exists in those places compared to a consolidated city-county where a county does legally exist in some form. [[Washington, D.C.]], is known as a ''[[federal city]]'' because it is outside the jurisdiction of any state; the U.S. Census Bureau treats it as a single county equivalent.<ref name="US county equivalent"/>

The specific governmental powers of counties vary widely between the states. They are generally the intermediate tier of state government, between the statewide tier and the immediately local government tier (typically a city, town/borough, or village/township). Some of the governmental functions that a county may offer include judiciary, county prisons, land registration, enforcement of building codes, and federally mandated services programs. Depending on the individual state, counties or their equivalents may be administratively subdivided into [[civil township|townships]], [[borough|boroughs or boros]], or [[town]]s (in the [[New England]] states, [[New York (state)|New York]], and [[Administrative divisions of Wisconsin|Wisconsin]]).

[[New York City]] is a special case where the city is made up of [[Boroughs of New York City|five boroughs]], each of which is territorially coterminous with a [[List of counties in New York|county]], though not always with an identical name. The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County. In the context of city government, the boroughs are subdivisions of the city but are still called "county" where county function is involved, e.g., "''New York County'' Courthouse".

County governments in [[local government in Rhode Island|Rhode Island]] and [[local government in Connecticut|Connecticut]] have been completely abolished but the entities remain for administrative and statistical purposes in Rhode Island, while Connecticut has replaced them with planning regions served by councils of municipal governments. Alaska's {{convert|adj=on|323,440|sqmi|km2}} [[Unorganized Borough, Alaska|Unorganized Borough]] also has no county equivalent government, but the U.S. Census Bureau further divides it into statistical county equivalent subdivisions called [[List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska|census areas]].<ref name="US county equivalent"/> [[local government in Massachusetts|Massachusetts]] eliminated county governments in 8 of its 14 counties.<ref>https://www.naco.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/2024%20County%20Government%20Primer_v20_FINAL.pdf</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.test.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/technical-documentation/county-changes.1970.html | title=Substantial Changes to Counties and County Equivalent Entities: 1970-Present }}</ref>

Today, 3,142 counties and county equivalents carve up the United States, ranging in number from 3 for [[list of counties in Delaware|Delaware]] to 254 for [[list of counties in Texas|Texas]]. The areas of each county also vary widely between the states. For example, the territorially medium-sized state of [[Pennsylvania]] has 67 counties delineated in geographically convenient ways.<ref name="citsguide">{{cite journal|title=County Government|journal=Citizen's Guide to Pennsylvania Local Government|year=2010|page=8 of 56|url=http://dced.pa.gov/download/citizens-guide-to-pennsylvania-local-government-pdf/#.V6nqHUeOxtQ|access-date=2016-08-09}}</ref> By way of contrast, [[Massachusetts]], with far less territory, has massively sized counties in comparison even to Pennsylvania's largest,{{efn|e.g. Westmoreland, Washington in western Pennsylvania.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}}} yet each organizes their judicial and incarceration officials similarly.

Most counties have a [[county seat]]: a city, town, or other named place where its administrative functions are centered. Some [[New England]] states use the term [[shire town]] to mean "county seat". A handful of counties like [[Harrison County, Mississippi]] have two or more county seats, usually located on opposite sides of the county, dating back from the days when travel was difficult. In Virginia, where all cities are independent, some double as county seats despite not being part of a county. Notable examples include the independent [[Fairfax, Virginia|City of Fairfax]] serving as the seat of [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]] and [[Salem, Virginia|Salem]] serving as the county seat of [[Roanoke County]].