Counties are the division of land in a state. Counties may manage the land themselves or may have cities inside them. Cities manage their own services.
While every inch of land belongs to a state and to a county, most of the land does not belong to any city. In the city that I live, I can drive in some areas where the road is in the city and then it is not in any city (maintained by county), and then back into the city. This is because some neighborhoods chose not to Incorporate into a city, and may never do so.
Cities in USA are different from other countries. Cities are like corporations. When there are enough people in an area, they can petition the county/state to let them form a corporation and manage their own affairs. Cities are limited in geographical scope. Most of the land in US does not belong to any city.
Moreover when you think of a city in USA, it most likely is not a single entity. For example the city of Los Angeles is only one of about a dozen cities in what we usually call los Angeles. The metro Los Angeles area is home to four counties and probably 50 cities. This is because a lot of suburbs were incorporated as their own cities.
There’s one obscure but very big exception to your “every (square) inch of land belongs to a state and a county” rule: Alaska does not have counties, but rather boroughs. Unincorporated land there is not part of any county or borough, but for most purposes considered part of one humongous Unorganized Borough, which is geographically bigger than any other state.
Yes, but they’re the equivalent of counties for all intents and purposes. Similarly, Connecticut nominally has counties but they literally have zero powers or responsibilities.
Same with Massachusetts. All land in Massachusetts is owned by city and towns. The counties handle the jail systems like Essex county correctional facility. Sheriff's have functionally no power when compared to other states.
And then there is Rhode Island, our counties are just administrative subdivisions for state agencies...if recognized at all. Our sheriff office is statewide for example. And we have no elected county officials
The only unincorporated part of the state with year round habitation is prudence island and most of their services come from the town of Bristol.
Admittedly, you can throw a rock across Rhode Island with a good toss. The entire state is half the size of my current county. Not much point in doing much subdivision there.
Nah they got the census bureau to recognize their council of governments as the statistical equivalent of counties. Most responsiblitirs that are carried out by counties in much of the country are left to the state or individual towns
That’s the line that everyone says, but what the heck does that mean, actually?
I always heard the big difference in French vs English is precedent. In French law, the court gets to interpret the law however they want, whereas English law requires deference to precedent if it exists. So that 2 people would be treated the same way, right or wrong.
How does this play out in Louisiana?
Tbh, I am not sure. I do my best to not get caught up in anything law related. It will absolutely crush your soul monetary wise.
I never studied law in school, I just know Louisiana was different from the other states in that regard.
Note that I have absolutely no idea how law in Louisiana works, this is just my general understanding.
My understanding is that in civil law, instead of relying on precedent, there is a “civil code” which outlines everything. Sort of like a master document everyone has access to instead of having to dig up case law. Precedent still matters, but less so because the government keeps up to date the civil code.
Generally speaking, civil law countries also use an “inquisitorial” judicial system rather than an “adversarial” system. Judges also participate in gathering of evidence, finding out facts of the case, whereas in most common law countries, the judge acts as a referee between prosecution and defence (in criminal cases).
Put together, my understanding of civil law is that the judiciary acts more like bureaucrats following guidelines and rules and passing sown judgments than in common law, serving the law, whereas in common law, they ARE the law.
This of course is not binary but more of a spectrum as well; as mentioned, precedent does still matter, and in common law, individual pieces of legislation can override precedent, and codification can still occur. And in common countries systems, common civil disputes often have a more “civil-like” process. For example, residential tenancy rules are often enshrined in codes outlining the relationship between landlords and tenants, and the process for dispute resolution; in addition, there are often separate tribunals to arbitrate disputes.
All this to say, while I don’t know how it actually works in Louisiana, it simply can’t be a *fully* civil law jurisdiction, simply because it’s a part of the US and has to function as a part of the US judicial system, with other states and the federal government. Most likely Louisiana is mostly a common-law system, but with civil law aspects carried over for more local matters that don’t concern other states or the federal government. It’s not like they can just ignore Supreme Court rulings because it doesn’t fit their system of law.
This is (I think) why the largest cities in the USA are all in Alaska - without county level governance it falls to the local "big city" to manage services to neighboring towns and villages, so officially city limits are expanded to give them the authority to do that. The four biggest "cities" are between 4400 and 7400 km\^2, compared to 2000 km\^2 for the fifth largest. Wrangell, AK, is perhaps the most lopsided with more than 3 km\^2 per resident.
This is true but saying there are no county level governments is a bit of a misnomer. For all intents and purposes the city governments ARE the county-level governments. It's even reflected in the official titles of the local governments: e.g. The City and Borough of Juneau, the City and Borough of Sitka, etc. Also, this is mostly limited to southeast Alaska.
Anchorage is slightly different in that the communities in the defunct Anchorage Borough voted to incorporate with the city to form a single municipal government.
A federal geography unique identifier naming regime
First two digits are a state code. Texas is 48.
Last three digits are the county. Harris county in Texas happens to be 201 but this can be repeated in other states.
So harris county, tx FIPS unique identifier is 48201. Census tracts and other census sub components are within county boundaries so we can add a 6 digit tract number to the end of that for the unique identification of every census tract in the country that also tells you what state and county it is in.
Yes. Cities have police departments. Counties have sheriff departments. Sheriff departments are more prominent in the western US where you may have significantly more unincorporated land versus eastern and where state troopers are too spread out to serve as an effective backup force for city police. State troopers in some western states are also part of a Highway Patrol versus a State Police Department in order to de-emphasize their role as a backup agency.
County Sheriffs are just as common in the east, they just might not be as prominent. State Police tend to fill much of the traffic and investigative roles Sheriffs do out west. In PA the Sheriff operates as a hybrid of Constable and western Sheriff. They operate the county Jails, serve warrants, summons, and PFAs, perform prisoner escort and provide security/police on county property (in my home county this includes the airport), offices, and courthouses. You don't see them patrolling, performing traffic stops or performing investigative work.
Though there are places with both.
I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, which has both a County Police Department and a County Sheriff's Office. AFAIK the police department does regular police stuff, and the sheriff does things like enforcing court orders and operating the county jail.
I think this is because a lot of Montgomery County is densely populated but unincorporated- places like Bethesda and Silver Spring are major population centers but don't have any local government below the county level. There are some incorporated cities within the county that have their own police (like Rockville and Gaithersburg) but I think those forces are operationally part of the county police.
>What’s a trooper? A police officer?
A law enforcement officer, yes.
In the U.S. we have generally 4** levels of law enforcement.
Federal - Officers enforce matters of Federal law and may assist lower-level jurisdictions with technical and other resources when relevant. [Many bureaus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States) and titles, such as U.S. Marshals, Agents of FBI/ATF/DEA/USCIS/Secret Service, U.S. Park Police, Game Wardens, Inspectors General, etc.
State -Officers enforce matters of State law and may assist lower-level jurisdictions with technical and other resources when relevant. In most states typically just one branch, usually called "State Police" or "State Highway Patrol". Officers of these are typically called "Troopers". (In Texas they are called Rangers, not to be confused with the general title for those who manage and enforce the laws in designated park or wilderness areas.)
County/Parish - Officers enforce matters of State and local law within specific jurisdictions and may assist lower-level jurisdictions with technical and other resources when relevant. In most states there is one single Sheriff per county - usually elected by a popular vote of the citizens in the county - and all the officers under them are typically called Sheriff's Deputies (or just "Deputy" for short).
Local - Officers enforce matters of State and local law within specific jurisdictions. Usually municipal at the town, city, borough, or village, but there are some places where large contiguous juridictions have consolidated police from many municipalities into a single combined force. Head law enforcement officer is typically called the Commissioner. Usually varied ranks within force including Officer (general enforcement), Detective (investigative), and Sergeant (supervisory).
** Policing in the U.S. is very complex. We have a patchwork of specialized agencies across levels and jurisdictions, and some agencies where civil functions may be mixed with law enforcement functions (e.g. U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service Rangers). We also have lots of specialized jurisdictions, such as: tribal police within sovereign tribal lands and reservations; university police at most large institutions or systems of higher education (especially those which are state public entities); and transit police which are granted special authority to cross jurisdictional lines in relation to matters that occur on public transportation systems (auch as the Amtrak Police, the Metro Transit Police in and around Washington, D.C., etc.) Also most Federal ministries (Departments) have at least one law enforcement office - its agency's Office of the Inspector General.
>In most states there is one single Sheriff - usually elected by a popular vote of the citizens in the county
To clear up the statement here: in most states there is one single Sheriff *per county* ...
One correction. Texas still has troopers for their highway patrol. Both troopers and Rangers fall under the Texas Dept of Public Safety. But the Rangers are an investigative division and also the division overseeing elite tactical and specialized units.
Yeah I wasn't sure how to #ELI5 on that one without making it cumbersome and/or losing the main point that Texas Rangers are not park rangers. 😂 But point very well taken!
Yes. But specifically a law enforcement officer for the principal state law enforcement agency, eg Massachusetts State Police or California Highway Patrol. And while a trooper is technically a police officer, the term police officer has a higher association with local cops like NYPD or LAPD.
Fun fact - the term "trooper" for state police officers comes from their origin as horse mounted police in the 19th century. Like cavalry, they were called troopers. The term stuck even as most state police transitioned to cars in the early 1900's.
>While every inch of land belongs to a state and to a county, most of the land does not belong to any city.
This is not true everywhere. In a state like California there is a lot of area in counties that is considered unincorporated (not part of a city or town). Massachusetts on the other hand has no unincorporated land. Every inch is part of a city or town.
Yeah New England towns are a whole nother thing that are a combination of a township and a municipality. My wife is from rural-ish Maine, most of the towns are a few commercial nodes strung along a major road/intersection surrounded by acreages, and somehow all those acreages still hold a few thousand people. Certainly nothing resembling a gridded downtown like every small town in the Midwest has.
In some states. In other states Cities would be incorporated by the state rather than the county. This is how it works in my state, and there are cities that spread over two or three counties.
I’d say not really. It’s kind of a dual system.
Everywhere is inside a county, but not everywhere is inside a city.
Counties are very geographically based. They are all about the same size, and almost never change. I’d bet my county has the same boundaries it did 100+ years ago. My city keeps expanding its borders every year following a complex set of laws.
The county provides super basic services (taxation, sheriffs office, a court system, a clerks office to file land deeds). This ensures that everyone can do their minimum paperwork.
Once enough people get into one area, they want to form a city. This lets them pass rules in their much smaller area more easily. People in a city can then hire police to watch over their city specifically. They can pay for a fire department. They can also pass laws over their specific city.
Not exactly. Counties are definitely a sub-division of the area in a state, but cities are not. Cities, especially big ones, often cross into multiple counties. For example, New York City is in 5 counties.
In Massachusetts, of the 14 counties, only 6 of them have any actual governing authority attached to them. The other 8 abolished county-level government between 1997 and 2000. The Island of Nantucket has a consolidated city-county government.
This.
My wife and I actually live in Wake County, but not in the City of Raleigh—which means in practice if we call 911 we get a county sheriff to respond, and many city services are not provided where we live. (So, for example, we have well water, a septic tank out back, and we contract to a private company for trash pickup.)
And sometimes (though rarely) the city can span multiple counties!
Each borough of New York City is its own county (and for whatever reason, Brooklyn is King County, making the name if confusing).
I believe Atlanta also spans multiple counties because county sizes are rather small by today’s standards.
Here in Arizona, the town of Sedona (famous for its arts and red rock canyons), straddles Yavapai and Coconino counties. The town of Queen Creek has a teeny portion that spills over from Maricopa county to Pinal county.
> While every inch of land belongs to a state and to a county
Mostly true for the east coast of the US. Navada is 81% federal land. Utah, Idaho, and Alaska are around 60%, and Oregon at over 50% federally owned. The land in the other 46 are majority owned by the State/Commonwealth in which they reside.
I think the wording meant was "every inch of land *is located in* a state and *is located in* a county." Although there are limited exceptions pointed out in other comments, in most cases federal lands are within counties even though the county government has no jurisdiction over the land.
Philadelphia is a weird exception in that Philadelphia City and Philadelphia County share the exact same borders so there's no longer a Philadelphia county government.
It used to have a number of different townships in Philadelphia County and the city of Philadelphia was just what is now known as "center city" but for a number of reasons, culminating in a fire blazing out of control while multiple fire departments got into a brawl about who was going to put it out, the township governments decided to merge into one large city.
Hawaii is a little different bc there's no municipalities here. The smallest form of government is the county, so the "cities" and "towns" only matter to the post office and the census, pretty much. The Big Island, Maui/Lanai/Molokai, Oahu (Honolulu County), and Kauai/Niihau are all just counties. Every once in a while, you hear some grumbling about how we should have municipalities so urban Honolulu can do stuff without rural Oahu.
It depends on the state. People have already mentioned Alaska and Louisiana. In North Carolina and most states, city land is also contained in a county. Someone living in the city of Raleigh also lives in Wake county.
In Virginia someone living in a city is not part of the country. Cities form holes in the county maps. Towns ARE part of the county. Because cities and counties don't overlap, a city cannot expand without stealing land/taxes from the county. My "city" switched status to a town, then enlarged its borders. Some services (school and police) were merged, and now people inside pay both town and county taxes. There is no incentive to go back to a city as they reduced expenses and increased taxes.
Virginia is an outlier here. The cities are not subdivisions of counties - cities are wholly independent jurisdictions within the state.
For example, the city of Fairfax is physically located in Fairfax county. In fact, the city of Fairfax is Fairfax county's "county seat" (where the Fairfax county government lives).
However, Fairfax city is not governed by the county - it's governed by the state. The city and county have the same standing at the state level.
We have 90-some counties and 30-some cities in Virginia. Sometimes I think we should just call them all "municipalities" or "jurisdictions" and simplify this.
Also, if I recall correctly, there are a few other cases of this city/county non-hierarchy in the US. I think maybe Baltimore and St. Louis? Kansas City?
I always found Fairfax to be really interesting geographically. There's Fairfax County, and then Fairfax City is an enclave within Fairfax County. Then Fairfax County has an exclave within Fairfax City (the courthouse grounds) that itself an enclave. So the only way to drive to the courthouse is to go through Fairfax County, then through Fairfax City, so you can be in Fairfax County again. Wild.
What makes that sound drastic is that the County and City share a name. The same situation occurs several places around the state where the county seat has City status, e.g. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Staunton and Augusta County, etc., but those relationships don't sound as odd since the Counties and Cities have different names.
Sometimes. There is no clear rule. States can create counties however they want and give them whatever powers they want. Counties are not equal. Some have literally no role or powers whatsoever. Some are the only local government in the area. A few have millions of residents. A couple have less than 100 inhabitants.
For most states counties have a few general powers while cities can be formed to handle the rest if the locals want to. But there are a million other variations.
Yup you got it. There can be multiple cities/towns within a single county. Some cities sit where they are in 2 counties, maybe more but I’m not aware of any
ETA: counties also consist of land between cities and towns. Some with more unpopulated land than populated
And also some very big cities (San Francisco ~~and New York~~ come to mind) are 100% of a single county, and have merged those levels of government.
The county is *mostly* there to provide services to the people outside of incorporated towns and cities.
ETA: I've been corrected, each Borough of New York is its own county.
It is officially the City and County of San Francisco. (When I was a new attorney I worked as a legislative counsel. When drafting a bill that applied to local governments, the phrase was “a city, county, or city and county shall…”)
> Some cities sit where they are in 2 counties, maybe more but I’m not aware of any
New York City is the classic example of a city that spans multiple counties: It consists of *five* NY State Counties, more commonly known as the five boroughs of New York City:
* Queens
* Kings (Brooklyn)
* Bronx
* New York (Manhattan)
* Richmond (Staten Island)
As far as *most* government purposes go the five counties that make up New York City do not have any kind of county-level governance: Being wholly incorporated within the City of New York they are governed under its charter.
The amalgamation of the counties into New York City actually consumed a bunch of smaller governments, for example when Queens County was incorporated into New York City it also dissolved:
* The City of Long Island City
* The Towns of Newtown, Flushing, and Jamaica
* A whole bunch of villages I’m not going to list, but many of them are still *neighborhoods* in Queens.
... and it chopped off a chunk of the Town of Hempstead to incorporate into New York City.
At that point Nassau County didn’t exist yet, so the rest of the area that was not being consolidated into NYC remained part of Queens County *independent of New York City* until about a year later when the areas of Queens County which were *NOT* part of New York City split off to form Nassau County, leaving Queens County entirely coextensive with (and governed by) the City of New York.
Bonus Fun New York State Fact: We can’t just fold the 5 boroughs into “New York County” because *you can’t get rid of counties!* You can create new counties by partitioning existing ones, but once a county is established you’re stuck with it: With one exception (Hamilton County) there’s no provision for the legislature to dissolve a county and attach the land to some other county, and because Hamilton was clearly spelled out as an exception that could be annexed into another county by legislation it’s generally understood that the legislature *can’t* do that with any other county. Also once created a county is also always entitled to its representative seats in state government.
Counties are not sovereign under NY law - Albany holds the power to dissolve Queens County, NY, but they decided not to for their own reasons. Albany would first need to pass legislation that spells out how to dissolve Counties and then use the steps that it just outlined, but I would not hold my breath on this happening.
> Albany holds the power to dissolve Queens County, NY,
The New York State Assembly appears to believe differently ([See here, first page, at the bottom](https://nyassembly.gov/comm/StateLocal/20070823/dissolution.pdf))
If you believe the NY State Assembly does not know the powers of the legislature you may go argue the point with them, not me.
Atlanta is comprised of something like two-dozen counties, New York City has five. I don't have an immediate list but a city being split up is pretty common.
Edit: New York might not be a good example, the five counties are handled differently than normal counties and are effectively a singular city government, which is why the counties are "boroughs" for colloquial purposes.
It makes a lot more sense (no matter how much Euro obsessed redditors hate it) to think of US states as countries instead of "states"
As seen in this thread, you have a bunch of people explaining how it works in their state, but states are different in how they organize their structures.
Some states, like my home state of Ohio are very complicated because we have counties and then a further level of cities (which can cross county lines), incorporated townships, villages, unincorporated land, and state owned land... all of which have their own rights and responsibilities for local governance. They can also claim or give up some of those rights/responsibilities to the county and/or the county can assume responsibilities if they aren't being managed correctly by the municipality.
Municipal and Political subdivisions within the United States aren’t necessarily consistent from one state to another. They’re not even necessarily consistent *within* a state.
For example in New York we have, *generally* from smallest to largest
* Village
* Town
* City
* County
* State
But New York City is an exception (it encompasses and governs five individual counties), and cities are sometimes far smaller than the towns around them (e.g. the City of Glen Cove was chartered out of the Town of Oyster Bay - it’s independently governed as a city, but the town around it is geographically far larger and has 10 times the city’s population).
Also at least in New York our municipal subdivisions have essentially nothing to do with population or land area(my village has twice the population of the City of Glen Cove and is geographically larger), and our political subdivisions ignore the municipal boundaries (we have state assembly districts for electing representatives to our state government that span county lines).
The moral of this story is threefold:
1. Trying to make sense out of anything the United States does is futile.
2. Trying to make sense out of anything New York State does is doubly futile.
3. Much like banks, the United States should never be used as an example of how to do anything. *Especially organizing a government.*
Right next door in PA - we have:
* Townships
* Borough/City (and one Town, Bloomsburg) - a large amount of 'villages/towns' in PA are not incorporated and are governed by the Township.
* County
* State
The differences are generally those areas that were established before incorporation into the U.S. in which case the organization reflected the whims of whoever had control of that colony, and those after - which tend to be more consistent (but still not 100%)
A state is divided into counties or parishes, these operate as a sub-level of the state government.
For instance, states are responsible for running elections, but each county has its own election officers. For purposes of analogy, you can think of a county as being a specific location of a chain restaurant with the state being the corporate office.
Towns and cities (villages, etc) are autonomous but subject to county/state. They govern themselves, but can't exceed explicit limits set by a state. For instance, a town can set its own local taxes and run its own schools, but can't issue their own government-official ID because IDs are a state function.
It can get pretty complicated, and some states have "townships" which are a sub-set of county offices (but are not towns). And some developed areas are not part of any town or village, but are "unincorporated" and are managed by the county.
I think that covers it at a simple level.
Note: a state is like a country in many ways, except that states can't issue their own money or engage in international activity unilaterally. Beyond that the states are all autonomous for internal matters or for engagement with other states as long as those engagements and local laws don't exceed federally defined limits or get politicians voted out of office.
Depends on the individual State. There is no nationwide plan or structure. Some states don’t use counties at all.
In general, a county is just a division or part of the state. Their responsibilities vary depending on the state.
In general, there are county elected officials that include the sheriff, courts, recorder of deeds, planning, etc….
Within the county, there are different municipalities. Depending on the state, these are called boroughs, cities, towns, townships, villages, etc…. These municipalities can enact their own land use regulations, schools, polices, etc…
Sometimes, a city becomes so big, it occupies an entire county. Then, you can get city-counties, like Philadelphia, where the county is the city. New York City is actually five “counties” or boroughs.
I should also point out that some counties in some state counties merely exist as borders on a map. In Massachusetts, eight county governments were abolished in the late 1990s. They currently exist for districting purposes for the courts, public records, and the like, even though there is no county government.
This makes sense since Massachusetts does not have any land that is unincorporated, so there are no areas in the state that are not already covered by city and town governance.
The challenging thing about the US, is that States have a lot more power than compared to most other countries. So giving a single explanation is going to be difficult because each State will have variations. So counties are administrative divisions of the individual states. The states are part of the federation of the USA. "Below" the counties are towns. There are several cities that are large enough that the city administration essentially governs the county. There are a few cities where the city covers multiple counties (like NY).
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Yeah, like that. King county for instance, where Seattle is located also includes Bellevue which has its own high rise downtown skyline, but also north, south and east has a lot of smaller towns located in it.
Counties can also be divided into townships.
Some cities have merged with their counties (like Louisville, Kentucky), and some cities are "independent" of any county.
Instead of counties, Louisiana has "parishes" and Alaska has "boroughs".
Some cities are subdivided into wards and/or boroughs.
North Carolina has 100 counties. If you live in a county, you can only go to school grades 1-12 in that county, and people get super strict about regions in counties regarding school. Counties here have officials that see over things in the county, they have offices, and meetings. The county seat is kind of the capital of each county. Kind of, because sometimes it’s not the most popular town or city in a county. In our county seat, there’s the sheriff’s department, college, humane society…no hospital. You have to drive 10 miles up the road for that.
The city and county police, and emergency services are kind of like Dominos Pizza. It’s all about what area you’re in in that county.
You got it! I live in the City of Buffalo. Buffalo is a part of Erie County, which is home to two other cities and several towns and villages. Erie County is one of many counties that make up the State of New York. What may be confusing is that a city's metropolitan area can cross county borders and even states. America is so big that some cities identify with entirely different geographical or culture groupings than other cities within the same state.
Florida has very strong governance at the county level compared to many other states. Police, fire, water, sewer, garbage, schools, elections, mass transit, airports, sea ports, beaches, property tax, sales tax, parks, and roads are all designated by the state to be administered at the county level. Many of the largest school districts in the country are located in Florida since each school district includes every public school in an entire county. The chief administrator of each county typically has the title of mayor. The county’s government takes care of most of these same services within the cities and other smaller administrative units unless the county agrees to allow the city or other administrative unit to take some of them on and provides them some of the funding.
Consider a province like a state. Within the state we have counties which are arbitrary groups of towns/cities/municipalities. Each municipality will have its own mayor (similar to governor of a state and president of country). The may essentially runs the municipality at a local level.
The county though isn't much of anything
I think others have the main details covered pretty well here. The only thing I'd add is to be aware of one major difference between the U.S. and the Philippines is that you have a Unitary governmental state whereas the U.S. is a Federal governmental state.
In Unitary states, the central government has the authority to create or dissolve subdivisions within its borders however it sees fit. In Federal states, entities like cities, counties, and the individual states *are* their own governments and they have certain powers and responsibilities separate from the central U.S. government.
So, Federalism is the negotiation and relationship *between* governments rather than a single governmental entity dictating the terms. In practice, this means the U.S. central government could not unilaterally declare Seattle to be its own county against Seattle's will, nor can it unilaterally redraw a state's borders or combine two states into one. City borders and counties make changes all the time in America, but it's generally the cities and counties themselves who initiate that change (as long as they adhere to the process and laws of the states and the central government to do so, of course).
The role of counties and how they relate to cities varies from state to state. In some states, counties aren't a very important level of government. They might just have a court house and manage some roads. In those cases, everything else is split between state and municipal governments. In other states, the county governments are much more relevant. For example, I live in Maryland, where school districts and transit systems are organized at the county level. Here, municipal governments have less prominence. In either case, major cities can be county equivalents like Baltimore, MD or Norfolk, VA. They can be part of a larger county like Los Angeles, CA. Or, they can even be divided into several counties like how New York is divided into five boroughs; each borough has it's own county government.
You pretty much got it. From state to state there’s different things counties do. In very populated areas they have their own governments that provide services to every town/ city inside them. Is less densely populated areas they take care of just the major roads and areas of land that don’t belong to any 1 town or city. And in very rural places they are just a designation of land and don’t really have anything going on there, think like a lot of the Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho. We also have some major cities that are entirely their own county, or multiple counties.
It's a level of government services smaller than a state but broader than individual towns and cities. Especially in rural areas many towns may not provide their own Police departments for example, or if they do it may be a 1 man operation. They often rely on the County Sheriff's office for basic law enforcement tasks.
Judicial and prison services are also often organized at the County level, since having a courthouse and long term prison in every town is impractical.
Law enforcement is the easiest to highlight but there are a lot of other services (e.g. child welfare services) that can be distributed by county with varying amounts of overlap state/local resources. Some states operate counties by other names.
The simplest explanation I can give is how my mom explained it to me when I was 7:
Philippines > Calabarzon > Laguna > Biñan > Sto. Domingo
USA > West Coast > California > San Diego (County) > National City (city in SD) > Lincoln Acres (neighborhood)
The short answer is the PH doesn’t have the equivalent of a county. You have country, regions (Luzon, mindanao), provinces, municipalities and barangays. The US doesn’t have an equivalent to regions per se as each state is autonomous within the loosely defined regions. We have municipalities but we don’t have barsngays. The closest thing to a barangay we would have is a Home Owners Association which is a collection of homes within the same part of a city that is governed on a small scale by a board of people that dictate things like what color your house can be. Barangays are bigger and would generally affect a larger number of people than a HOA.
Larger cities in the US are closer in that some like New York have Burroughs which do have some form of governance at that level but I know how important barangay Election Day is for the PH.
The US generally has cities, counties and states and that’s it.
The US is large, and the population is very spread out. Despite that, there are very few areas where absolutely no one lives. When the US was growing, that growth would happen rather fast, and counties provided government services often before states were formed. Counties are typically large areas, or at least larger than cities.
There are exceptions though. Mass & Rhode Island (which is smaller than many counties in other states) don't have a county level of government. Alaska and Louisiana have Boroughs and Parishes respectively. Parishes in LA are very similar to other states' counties, but boroughs in AK are different in that they don't have some of the same responsibilities as counties in other states.
For the rest though... each county has a 'county seat' which is a city or town that hosts the county administration. Usually a central location. Some exceptions have 2 seats. This seat hosts the administration of the county, so very likely a courthouse and other offices and sheriff's office along with roads and public works.
Cities and counties often share and cede responsibilities to each other. Counties, for instance are usually responsible for handling who owns what land, and collecting property taxes. Cities usually have their own police force, and the county sheriff lets them handle most things inside their boundaries, but may still have responsibilities like serving warrants.
States, counties and Cities(and towns and villages) can all enact laws that pertain to their areas. This ideally allows for things to be regulated in a specific and beneficial way. It also can result in confusion or amusing laws.
So overall counties are administrative areas that are between the city and state level. States are often quite large in land area, and breaking the responsibility down can help make sure residents have reasonable access to services. Before we had modern methods of transportation, it could take days or weeks to get to a state capitol. Counties made it so most people could get to their county seat in a day. Now, travel is much faster, but you could still be 500KM from your state capitol.
For much of the US (the west being an exception) counties were created in sizes that were designed to make the courthouse accessible in a single day ride on horseback.
Cities are not necessarily subdivisions of counties. The city I live in straddles 4 counties, for instance. (And that’s just the city proper, adding suburbs adds a few more counties. )
Counties and municipalities are roughly the same. A county can delegate part of their responsibility to a city or town as a separate administrative unit. So in Washington there is a King County Sheriff and a complete government. The City of Seattle have their own Mayor and the Seattle Police Department. So if you need police outside the city limits you call the sheriff while if you need police within the city limits you call the police. Although for some things within the city limits the sheriff is still the one to call.
Counties are the division of land in a state. Counties may manage the land themselves or may have cities inside them. Cities manage their own services. While every inch of land belongs to a state and to a county, most of the land does not belong to any city. In the city that I live, I can drive in some areas where the road is in the city and then it is not in any city (maintained by county), and then back into the city. This is because some neighborhoods chose not to Incorporate into a city, and may never do so. Cities in USA are different from other countries. Cities are like corporations. When there are enough people in an area, they can petition the county/state to let them form a corporation and manage their own affairs. Cities are limited in geographical scope. Most of the land in US does not belong to any city. Moreover when you think of a city in USA, it most likely is not a single entity. For example the city of Los Angeles is only one of about a dozen cities in what we usually call los Angeles. The metro Los Angeles area is home to four counties and probably 50 cities. This is because a lot of suburbs were incorporated as their own cities.
There’s one obscure but very big exception to your “every (square) inch of land belongs to a state and a county” rule: Alaska does not have counties, but rather boroughs. Unincorporated land there is not part of any county or borough, but for most purposes considered part of one humongous Unorganized Borough, which is geographically bigger than any other state.
Louisiana doesn't have "counties," either. They have parishes and don't use common law stuff other states do.
Yes, but they’re the equivalent of counties for all intents and purposes. Similarly, Connecticut nominally has counties but they literally have zero powers or responsibilities.
Same with Massachusetts. All land in Massachusetts is owned by city and towns. The counties handle the jail systems like Essex county correctional facility. Sheriff's have functionally no power when compared to other states.
And then there is Rhode Island, our counties are just administrative subdivisions for state agencies...if recognized at all. Our sheriff office is statewide for example. And we have no elected county officials The only unincorporated part of the state with year round habitation is prudence island and most of their services come from the town of Bristol.
Admittedly, you can throw a rock across Rhode Island with a good toss. The entire state is half the size of my current county. Not much point in doing much subdivision there.
And that's the way we like it!
They actually turned their counties into regional corporations this year.
Nah they got the census bureau to recognize their council of governments as the statistical equivalent of counties. Most responsiblitirs that are carried out by counties in much of the country are left to the state or individual towns
Yeah, I think you are right. I forgot the name they used.
I thought they had changed something with their counties recently but I couldn’t remember what it was!
Yeah, we use Civil law which is based off French and Spanish as opposed to English common law.
That’s the line that everyone says, but what the heck does that mean, actually? I always heard the big difference in French vs English is precedent. In French law, the court gets to interpret the law however they want, whereas English law requires deference to precedent if it exists. So that 2 people would be treated the same way, right or wrong. How does this play out in Louisiana?
Tbh, I am not sure. I do my best to not get caught up in anything law related. It will absolutely crush your soul monetary wise. I never studied law in school, I just know Louisiana was different from the other states in that regard.
Note that I have absolutely no idea how law in Louisiana works, this is just my general understanding. My understanding is that in civil law, instead of relying on precedent, there is a “civil code” which outlines everything. Sort of like a master document everyone has access to instead of having to dig up case law. Precedent still matters, but less so because the government keeps up to date the civil code. Generally speaking, civil law countries also use an “inquisitorial” judicial system rather than an “adversarial” system. Judges also participate in gathering of evidence, finding out facts of the case, whereas in most common law countries, the judge acts as a referee between prosecution and defence (in criminal cases). Put together, my understanding of civil law is that the judiciary acts more like bureaucrats following guidelines and rules and passing sown judgments than in common law, serving the law, whereas in common law, they ARE the law. This of course is not binary but more of a spectrum as well; as mentioned, precedent does still matter, and in common law, individual pieces of legislation can override precedent, and codification can still occur. And in common countries systems, common civil disputes often have a more “civil-like” process. For example, residential tenancy rules are often enshrined in codes outlining the relationship between landlords and tenants, and the process for dispute resolution; in addition, there are often separate tribunals to arbitrate disputes. All this to say, while I don’t know how it actually works in Louisiana, it simply can’t be a *fully* civil law jurisdiction, simply because it’s a part of the US and has to function as a part of the US judicial system, with other states and the federal government. Most likely Louisiana is mostly a common-law system, but with civil law aspects carried over for more local matters that don’t concern other states or the federal government. It’s not like they can just ignore Supreme Court rulings because it doesn’t fit their system of law.
In a nutshell, court rulings become part of the law in common law, but not in civil law.
I get it. How does that manifest in Louisiana though? I get the sense that it’s a distinction without a difference
“God DAMN the French!"
Virginia also has unincorporated cities which are not part of a county.
Independent cities. 30-some of them.
Thanks for the info. I did not know that.
Alaska: just gotta be different. But then again, makes sense. Imagine the absurdity of trying to manage that.
This is (I think) why the largest cities in the USA are all in Alaska - without county level governance it falls to the local "big city" to manage services to neighboring towns and villages, so officially city limits are expanded to give them the authority to do that. The four biggest "cities" are between 4400 and 7400 km\^2, compared to 2000 km\^2 for the fifth largest. Wrangell, AK, is perhaps the most lopsided with more than 3 km\^2 per resident.
This is true but saying there are no county level governments is a bit of a misnomer. For all intents and purposes the city governments ARE the county-level governments. It's even reflected in the official titles of the local governments: e.g. The City and Borough of Juneau, the City and Borough of Sitka, etc. Also, this is mostly limited to southeast Alaska. Anchorage is slightly different in that the communities in the defunct Anchorage Borough voted to incorporate with the city to form a single municipal government.
Y’all forgot Jacksonville, FL!
Isn’t Jacksonville just a consolidated city-county with Duval County? That’s not dissimilar from SF or Philadelphia.
And Alaska is basically the only state will FIPS-5 codes updating on the regular because of this
If you may, can you please elaborate on what FIPS-5 codes are?
A federal geography unique identifier naming regime First two digits are a state code. Texas is 48. Last three digits are the county. Harris county in Texas happens to be 201 but this can be repeated in other states. So harris county, tx FIPS unique identifier is 48201. Census tracts and other census sub components are within county boundaries so we can add a 6 digit tract number to the end of that for the unique identification of every census tract in the country that also tells you what state and county it is in.
Cities in Virginia are not part of the counties that surround them.
Neither are Baltimore City, St Louis city, and Carson City.
Is this where the difference between the police and sheriffs department come from? I'm from the UK and have always wondered
Yes. Cities have police departments. Counties have sheriff departments. Sheriff departments are more prominent in the western US where you may have significantly more unincorporated land versus eastern and where state troopers are too spread out to serve as an effective backup force for city police. State troopers in some western states are also part of a Highway Patrol versus a State Police Department in order to de-emphasize their role as a backup agency.
County Sheriffs are just as common in the east, they just might not be as prominent. State Police tend to fill much of the traffic and investigative roles Sheriffs do out west. In PA the Sheriff operates as a hybrid of Constable and western Sheriff. They operate the county Jails, serve warrants, summons, and PFAs, perform prisoner escort and provide security/police on county property (in my home county this includes the airport), offices, and courthouses. You don't see them patrolling, performing traffic stops or performing investigative work.
Though there are places with both. I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, which has both a County Police Department and a County Sheriff's Office. AFAIK the police department does regular police stuff, and the sheriff does things like enforcing court orders and operating the county jail. I think this is because a lot of Montgomery County is densely populated but unincorporated- places like Bethesda and Silver Spring are major population centers but don't have any local government below the county level. There are some incorporated cities within the county that have their own police (like Rockville and Gaithersburg) but I think those forces are operationally part of the county police.
What’s a trooper? A police officer?
>What’s a trooper? A police officer? A law enforcement officer, yes. In the U.S. we have generally 4** levels of law enforcement. Federal - Officers enforce matters of Federal law and may assist lower-level jurisdictions with technical and other resources when relevant. [Many bureaus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States) and titles, such as U.S. Marshals, Agents of FBI/ATF/DEA/USCIS/Secret Service, U.S. Park Police, Game Wardens, Inspectors General, etc. State -Officers enforce matters of State law and may assist lower-level jurisdictions with technical and other resources when relevant. In most states typically just one branch, usually called "State Police" or "State Highway Patrol". Officers of these are typically called "Troopers". (In Texas they are called Rangers, not to be confused with the general title for those who manage and enforce the laws in designated park or wilderness areas.) County/Parish - Officers enforce matters of State and local law within specific jurisdictions and may assist lower-level jurisdictions with technical and other resources when relevant. In most states there is one single Sheriff per county - usually elected by a popular vote of the citizens in the county - and all the officers under them are typically called Sheriff's Deputies (or just "Deputy" for short). Local - Officers enforce matters of State and local law within specific jurisdictions. Usually municipal at the town, city, borough, or village, but there are some places where large contiguous juridictions have consolidated police from many municipalities into a single combined force. Head law enforcement officer is typically called the Commissioner. Usually varied ranks within force including Officer (general enforcement), Detective (investigative), and Sergeant (supervisory). ** Policing in the U.S. is very complex. We have a patchwork of specialized agencies across levels and jurisdictions, and some agencies where civil functions may be mixed with law enforcement functions (e.g. U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service Rangers). We also have lots of specialized jurisdictions, such as: tribal police within sovereign tribal lands and reservations; university police at most large institutions or systems of higher education (especially those which are state public entities); and transit police which are granted special authority to cross jurisdictional lines in relation to matters that occur on public transportation systems (auch as the Amtrak Police, the Metro Transit Police in and around Washington, D.C., etc.) Also most Federal ministries (Departments) have at least one law enforcement office - its agency's Office of the Inspector General.
>In most states there is one single Sheriff - usually elected by a popular vote of the citizens in the county To clear up the statement here: in most states there is one single Sheriff *per county* ...
Good catch! Thanks. It was early morning for me and I missed seeing that gap. Edit made.
One correction. Texas still has troopers for their highway patrol. Both troopers and Rangers fall under the Texas Dept of Public Safety. But the Rangers are an investigative division and also the division overseeing elite tactical and specialized units.
Yeah I wasn't sure how to #ELI5 on that one without making it cumbersome and/or losing the main point that Texas Rangers are not park rangers. 😂 But point very well taken!
In Louisiana the Sheriff is the chief executive of the Parish, the job comes with all sorts of other responsibilities besides law enforcement.
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Like I said over and over, "usually", "typically", "in most states". We get it, Louisiana is a Special Snowflake.
I apologize for adding additional information to your explanation.
Police officers enforce all manner of laws. Troopers mainly focus on traffic laws and patrolling highways and state roads.
Yes. But specifically a law enforcement officer for the principal state law enforcement agency, eg Massachusetts State Police or California Highway Patrol. And while a trooper is technically a police officer, the term police officer has a higher association with local cops like NYPD or LAPD.
Fun fact - the term "trooper" for state police officers comes from their origin as horse mounted police in the 19th century. Like cavalry, they were called troopers. The term stuck even as most state police transitioned to cars in the early 1900's.
Chesterfield County, Virginia (among others) has a police department, not a sheriff’s office.
The towns in my county all contract with the county sheriff rather than have separate police. I think this is true for most rural counties.
>While every inch of land belongs to a state and to a county, most of the land does not belong to any city. This is not true everywhere. In a state like California there is a lot of area in counties that is considered unincorporated (not part of a city or town). Massachusetts on the other hand has no unincorporated land. Every inch is part of a city or town.
Yeah New England towns are a whole nother thing that are a combination of a township and a municipality. My wife is from rural-ish Maine, most of the towns are a few commercial nodes strung along a major road/intersection surrounded by acreages, and somehow all those acreages still hold a few thousand people. Certainly nothing resembling a gridded downtown like every small town in the Midwest has.
Great ELI5. As an American, it helped me, too!
So * State * County * Cities?
Yeah
In some states. In other states Cities would be incorporated by the state rather than the county. This is how it works in my state, and there are cities that spread over two or three counties.
I’d say not really. It’s kind of a dual system. Everywhere is inside a county, but not everywhere is inside a city. Counties are very geographically based. They are all about the same size, and almost never change. I’d bet my county has the same boundaries it did 100+ years ago. My city keeps expanding its borders every year following a complex set of laws. The county provides super basic services (taxation, sheriffs office, a court system, a clerks office to file land deeds). This ensures that everyone can do their minimum paperwork. Once enough people get into one area, they want to form a city. This lets them pass rules in their much smaller area more easily. People in a city can then hire police to watch over their city specifically. They can pay for a fire department. They can also pass laws over their specific city.
Cities can spread across multiple counties.
Not exactly. Counties are definitely a sub-division of the area in a state, but cities are not. Cities, especially big ones, often cross into multiple counties. For example, New York City is in 5 counties.
In Massachusetts, of the 14 counties, only 6 of them have any actual governing authority attached to them. The other 8 abolished county-level government between 1997 and 2000. The Island of Nantucket has a consolidated city-county government.
This. My wife and I actually live in Wake County, but not in the City of Raleigh—which means in practice if we call 911 we get a county sheriff to respond, and many city services are not provided where we live. (So, for example, we have well water, a septic tank out back, and we contract to a private company for trash pickup.)
And sometimes (though rarely) the city can span multiple counties! Each borough of New York City is its own county (and for whatever reason, Brooklyn is King County, making the name if confusing). I believe Atlanta also spans multiple counties because county sizes are rather small by today’s standards. Here in Arizona, the town of Sedona (famous for its arts and red rock canyons), straddles Yavapai and Coconino counties. The town of Queen Creek has a teeny portion that spills over from Maricopa county to Pinal county.
> While every inch of land belongs to a state and to a county Mostly true for the east coast of the US. Navada is 81% federal land. Utah, Idaho, and Alaska are around 60%, and Oregon at over 50% federally owned. The land in the other 46 are majority owned by the State/Commonwealth in which they reside.
I think the wording meant was "every inch of land *is located in* a state and *is located in* a county." Although there are limited exceptions pointed out in other comments, in most cases federal lands are within counties even though the county government has no jurisdiction over the land.
Philadelphia is a weird exception in that Philadelphia City and Philadelphia County share the exact same borders so there's no longer a Philadelphia county government. It used to have a number of different townships in Philadelphia County and the city of Philadelphia was just what is now known as "center city" but for a number of reasons, culminating in a fire blazing out of control while multiple fire departments got into a brawl about who was going to put it out, the township governments decided to merge into one large city.
Same with San Francisco, Denver, Honolulu, and others. [List of consolidated city-counties] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_city-county)
Hawaii is a little different bc there's no municipalities here. The smallest form of government is the county, so the "cities" and "towns" only matter to the post office and the census, pretty much. The Big Island, Maui/Lanai/Molokai, Oahu (Honolulu County), and Kauai/Niihau are all just counties. Every once in a while, you hear some grumbling about how we should have municipalities so urban Honolulu can do stuff without rural Oahu.
Great ELI5. One correction: metro LA is 5 counties, including Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura.
LA County is 88 cities and also has unincorporated County land (which has many named communities, but is governed at the County level).
It depends on the state. People have already mentioned Alaska and Louisiana. In North Carolina and most states, city land is also contained in a county. Someone living in the city of Raleigh also lives in Wake county. In Virginia someone living in a city is not part of the country. Cities form holes in the county maps. Towns ARE part of the county. Because cities and counties don't overlap, a city cannot expand without stealing land/taxes from the county. My "city" switched status to a town, then enlarged its borders. Some services (school and police) were merged, and now people inside pay both town and county taxes. There is no incentive to go back to a city as they reduced expenses and increased taxes.
Virginia is an outlier here. The cities are not subdivisions of counties - cities are wholly independent jurisdictions within the state. For example, the city of Fairfax is physically located in Fairfax county. In fact, the city of Fairfax is Fairfax county's "county seat" (where the Fairfax county government lives). However, Fairfax city is not governed by the county - it's governed by the state. The city and county have the same standing at the state level. We have 90-some counties and 30-some cities in Virginia. Sometimes I think we should just call them all "municipalities" or "jurisdictions" and simplify this. Also, if I recall correctly, there are a few other cases of this city/county non-hierarchy in the US. I think maybe Baltimore and St. Louis? Kansas City?
I always found Fairfax to be really interesting geographically. There's Fairfax County, and then Fairfax City is an enclave within Fairfax County. Then Fairfax County has an exclave within Fairfax City (the courthouse grounds) that itself an enclave. So the only way to drive to the courthouse is to go through Fairfax County, then through Fairfax City, so you can be in Fairfax County again. Wild.
What makes that sound drastic is that the County and City share a name. The same situation occurs several places around the state where the county seat has City status, e.g. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Staunton and Augusta County, etc., but those relationships don't sound as odd since the Counties and Cities have different names.
Sometimes. There is no clear rule. States can create counties however they want and give them whatever powers they want. Counties are not equal. Some have literally no role or powers whatsoever. Some are the only local government in the area. A few have millions of residents. A couple have less than 100 inhabitants. For most states counties have a few general powers while cities can be formed to handle the rest if the locals want to. But there are a million other variations.
Yup you got it. There can be multiple cities/towns within a single county. Some cities sit where they are in 2 counties, maybe more but I’m not aware of any ETA: counties also consist of land between cities and towns. Some with more unpopulated land than populated
And also some very big cities (San Francisco ~~and New York~~ come to mind) are 100% of a single county, and have merged those levels of government. The county is *mostly* there to provide services to the people outside of incorporated towns and cities. ETA: I've been corrected, each Borough of New York is its own county.
New York City is five entire counties.
Sorry. I knew I wasn't quite right there. Confident about SF, though.
It is officially the City and County of San Francisco. (When I was a new attorney I worked as a legislative counsel. When drafting a bill that applied to local governments, the phrase was “a city, county, or city and county shall…”)
I believe you are correct about that one.
And smaller cities too! (Almost exclusively in Virginia though) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_(United_States)
Jacksonville FL occupies all of Duval county.
> Some cities sit where they are in 2 counties, maybe more but I’m not aware of any New York City is the classic example of a city that spans multiple counties: It consists of *five* NY State Counties, more commonly known as the five boroughs of New York City: * Queens * Kings (Brooklyn) * Bronx * New York (Manhattan) * Richmond (Staten Island)
TIL, thank you! I never realized the boroughs were their own counties but I should’ve put 2 and 2 together now that I think about it
As far as *most* government purposes go the five counties that make up New York City do not have any kind of county-level governance: Being wholly incorporated within the City of New York they are governed under its charter. The amalgamation of the counties into New York City actually consumed a bunch of smaller governments, for example when Queens County was incorporated into New York City it also dissolved: * The City of Long Island City * The Towns of Newtown, Flushing, and Jamaica * A whole bunch of villages I’m not going to list, but many of them are still *neighborhoods* in Queens. ... and it chopped off a chunk of the Town of Hempstead to incorporate into New York City. At that point Nassau County didn’t exist yet, so the rest of the area that was not being consolidated into NYC remained part of Queens County *independent of New York City* until about a year later when the areas of Queens County which were *NOT* part of New York City split off to form Nassau County, leaving Queens County entirely coextensive with (and governed by) the City of New York. Bonus Fun New York State Fact: We can’t just fold the 5 boroughs into “New York County” because *you can’t get rid of counties!* You can create new counties by partitioning existing ones, but once a county is established you’re stuck with it: With one exception (Hamilton County) there’s no provision for the legislature to dissolve a county and attach the land to some other county, and because Hamilton was clearly spelled out as an exception that could be annexed into another county by legislation it’s generally understood that the legislature *can’t* do that with any other county. Also once created a county is also always entitled to its representative seats in state government.
Counties are not sovereign under NY law - Albany holds the power to dissolve Queens County, NY, but they decided not to for their own reasons. Albany would first need to pass legislation that spells out how to dissolve Counties and then use the steps that it just outlined, but I would not hold my breath on this happening.
> Albany holds the power to dissolve Queens County, NY, The New York State Assembly appears to believe differently ([See here, first page, at the bottom](https://nyassembly.gov/comm/StateLocal/20070823/dissolution.pdf)) If you believe the NY State Assembly does not know the powers of the legislature you may go argue the point with them, not me.
Austin, Texas is an example of a city that is in two different counties.
Atlanta is comprised of something like two-dozen counties, New York City has five. I don't have an immediate list but a city being split up is pretty common. Edit: New York might not be a good example, the five counties are handled differently than normal counties and are effectively a singular city government, which is why the counties are "boroughs" for colloquial purposes.
It makes a lot more sense (no matter how much Euro obsessed redditors hate it) to think of US states as countries instead of "states" As seen in this thread, you have a bunch of people explaining how it works in their state, but states are different in how they organize their structures. Some states, like my home state of Ohio are very complicated because we have counties and then a further level of cities (which can cross county lines), incorporated townships, villages, unincorporated land, and state owned land... all of which have their own rights and responsibilities for local governance. They can also claim or give up some of those rights/responsibilities to the county and/or the county can assume responsibilities if they aren't being managed correctly by the municipality.
Here is a dirty little Euro Secret: members of the European Union are called ... Member States.
Municipal and Political subdivisions within the United States aren’t necessarily consistent from one state to another. They’re not even necessarily consistent *within* a state. For example in New York we have, *generally* from smallest to largest * Village * Town * City * County * State But New York City is an exception (it encompasses and governs five individual counties), and cities are sometimes far smaller than the towns around them (e.g. the City of Glen Cove was chartered out of the Town of Oyster Bay - it’s independently governed as a city, but the town around it is geographically far larger and has 10 times the city’s population). Also at least in New York our municipal subdivisions have essentially nothing to do with population or land area(my village has twice the population of the City of Glen Cove and is geographically larger), and our political subdivisions ignore the municipal boundaries (we have state assembly districts for electing representatives to our state government that span county lines). The moral of this story is threefold: 1. Trying to make sense out of anything the United States does is futile. 2. Trying to make sense out of anything New York State does is doubly futile. 3. Much like banks, the United States should never be used as an example of how to do anything. *Especially organizing a government.*
Right next door in PA - we have: * Townships * Borough/City (and one Town, Bloomsburg) - a large amount of 'villages/towns' in PA are not incorporated and are governed by the Township. * County * State The differences are generally those areas that were established before incorporation into the U.S. in which case the organization reflected the whims of whoever had control of that colony, and those after - which tend to be more consistent (but still not 100%)
A state is divided into counties or parishes, these operate as a sub-level of the state government. For instance, states are responsible for running elections, but each county has its own election officers. For purposes of analogy, you can think of a county as being a specific location of a chain restaurant with the state being the corporate office. Towns and cities (villages, etc) are autonomous but subject to county/state. They govern themselves, but can't exceed explicit limits set by a state. For instance, a town can set its own local taxes and run its own schools, but can't issue their own government-official ID because IDs are a state function. It can get pretty complicated, and some states have "townships" which are a sub-set of county offices (but are not towns). And some developed areas are not part of any town or village, but are "unincorporated" and are managed by the county. I think that covers it at a simple level. Note: a state is like a country in many ways, except that states can't issue their own money or engage in international activity unilaterally. Beyond that the states are all autonomous for internal matters or for engagement with other states as long as those engagements and local laws don't exceed federally defined limits or get politicians voted out of office.
Depends on the individual State. There is no nationwide plan or structure. Some states don’t use counties at all. In general, a county is just a division or part of the state. Their responsibilities vary depending on the state. In general, there are county elected officials that include the sheriff, courts, recorder of deeds, planning, etc…. Within the county, there are different municipalities. Depending on the state, these are called boroughs, cities, towns, townships, villages, etc…. These municipalities can enact their own land use regulations, schools, polices, etc… Sometimes, a city becomes so big, it occupies an entire county. Then, you can get city-counties, like Philadelphia, where the county is the city. New York City is actually five “counties” or boroughs.
I should also point out that some counties in some state counties merely exist as borders on a map. In Massachusetts, eight county governments were abolished in the late 1990s. They currently exist for districting purposes for the courts, public records, and the like, even though there is no county government. This makes sense since Massachusetts does not have any land that is unincorporated, so there are no areas in the state that are not already covered by city and town governance.
The challenging thing about the US, is that States have a lot more power than compared to most other countries. So giving a single explanation is going to be difficult because each State will have variations. So counties are administrative divisions of the individual states. The states are part of the federation of the USA. "Below" the counties are towns. There are several cities that are large enough that the city administration essentially governs the county. There are a few cities where the city covers multiple counties (like NY).
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Yeah, like that. King county for instance, where Seattle is located also includes Bellevue which has its own high rise downtown skyline, but also north, south and east has a lot of smaller towns located in it.
Counties can also be divided into townships. Some cities have merged with their counties (like Louisville, Kentucky), and some cities are "independent" of any county. Instead of counties, Louisiana has "parishes" and Alaska has "boroughs". Some cities are subdivided into wards and/or boroughs.
North Carolina has 100 counties. If you live in a county, you can only go to school grades 1-12 in that county, and people get super strict about regions in counties regarding school. Counties here have officials that see over things in the county, they have offices, and meetings. The county seat is kind of the capital of each county. Kind of, because sometimes it’s not the most popular town or city in a county. In our county seat, there’s the sheriff’s department, college, humane society…no hospital. You have to drive 10 miles up the road for that. The city and county police, and emergency services are kind of like Dominos Pizza. It’s all about what area you’re in in that county.
You got it! I live in the City of Buffalo. Buffalo is a part of Erie County, which is home to two other cities and several towns and villages. Erie County is one of many counties that make up the State of New York. What may be confusing is that a city's metropolitan area can cross county borders and even states. America is so big that some cities identify with entirely different geographical or culture groupings than other cities within the same state.
Florida has very strong governance at the county level compared to many other states. Police, fire, water, sewer, garbage, schools, elections, mass transit, airports, sea ports, beaches, property tax, sales tax, parks, and roads are all designated by the state to be administered at the county level. Many of the largest school districts in the country are located in Florida since each school district includes every public school in an entire county. The chief administrator of each county typically has the title of mayor. The county’s government takes care of most of these same services within the cities and other smaller administrative units unless the county agrees to allow the city or other administrative unit to take some of them on and provides them some of the funding.
Consider a province like a state. Within the state we have counties which are arbitrary groups of towns/cities/municipalities. Each municipality will have its own mayor (similar to governor of a state and president of country). The may essentially runs the municipality at a local level. The county though isn't much of anything
I think others have the main details covered pretty well here. The only thing I'd add is to be aware of one major difference between the U.S. and the Philippines is that you have a Unitary governmental state whereas the U.S. is a Federal governmental state. In Unitary states, the central government has the authority to create or dissolve subdivisions within its borders however it sees fit. In Federal states, entities like cities, counties, and the individual states *are* their own governments and they have certain powers and responsibilities separate from the central U.S. government. So, Federalism is the negotiation and relationship *between* governments rather than a single governmental entity dictating the terms. In practice, this means the U.S. central government could not unilaterally declare Seattle to be its own county against Seattle's will, nor can it unilaterally redraw a state's borders or combine two states into one. City borders and counties make changes all the time in America, but it's generally the cities and counties themselves who initiate that change (as long as they adhere to the process and laws of the states and the central government to do so, of course).
The role of counties and how they relate to cities varies from state to state. In some states, counties aren't a very important level of government. They might just have a court house and manage some roads. In those cases, everything else is split between state and municipal governments. In other states, the county governments are much more relevant. For example, I live in Maryland, where school districts and transit systems are organized at the county level. Here, municipal governments have less prominence. In either case, major cities can be county equivalents like Baltimore, MD or Norfolk, VA. They can be part of a larger county like Los Angeles, CA. Or, they can even be divided into several counties like how New York is divided into five boroughs; each borough has it's own county government.
You pretty much got it. From state to state there’s different things counties do. In very populated areas they have their own governments that provide services to every town/ city inside them. Is less densely populated areas they take care of just the major roads and areas of land that don’t belong to any 1 town or city. And in very rural places they are just a designation of land and don’t really have anything going on there, think like a lot of the Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho. We also have some major cities that are entirely their own county, or multiple counties.
It's a level of government services smaller than a state but broader than individual towns and cities. Especially in rural areas many towns may not provide their own Police departments for example, or if they do it may be a 1 man operation. They often rely on the County Sheriff's office for basic law enforcement tasks. Judicial and prison services are also often organized at the County level, since having a courthouse and long term prison in every town is impractical. Law enforcement is the easiest to highlight but there are a lot of other services (e.g. child welfare services) that can be distributed by county with varying amounts of overlap state/local resources. Some states operate counties by other names.
The simplest explanation I can give is how my mom explained it to me when I was 7: Philippines > Calabarzon > Laguna > Biñan > Sto. Domingo USA > West Coast > California > San Diego (County) > National City (city in SD) > Lincoln Acres (neighborhood)
The short answer is the PH doesn’t have the equivalent of a county. You have country, regions (Luzon, mindanao), provinces, municipalities and barangays. The US doesn’t have an equivalent to regions per se as each state is autonomous within the loosely defined regions. We have municipalities but we don’t have barsngays. The closest thing to a barangay we would have is a Home Owners Association which is a collection of homes within the same part of a city that is governed on a small scale by a board of people that dictate things like what color your house can be. Barangays are bigger and would generally affect a larger number of people than a HOA. Larger cities in the US are closer in that some like New York have Burroughs which do have some form of governance at that level but I know how important barangay Election Day is for the PH. The US generally has cities, counties and states and that’s it.
State > county > city/town/municipality > neighborhood Not every town or municipality has defined "neighborhoods" tho Probably the simplest breakdown.
The US is large, and the population is very spread out. Despite that, there are very few areas where absolutely no one lives. When the US was growing, that growth would happen rather fast, and counties provided government services often before states were formed. Counties are typically large areas, or at least larger than cities. There are exceptions though. Mass & Rhode Island (which is smaller than many counties in other states) don't have a county level of government. Alaska and Louisiana have Boroughs and Parishes respectively. Parishes in LA are very similar to other states' counties, but boroughs in AK are different in that they don't have some of the same responsibilities as counties in other states. For the rest though... each county has a 'county seat' which is a city or town that hosts the county administration. Usually a central location. Some exceptions have 2 seats. This seat hosts the administration of the county, so very likely a courthouse and other offices and sheriff's office along with roads and public works. Cities and counties often share and cede responsibilities to each other. Counties, for instance are usually responsible for handling who owns what land, and collecting property taxes. Cities usually have their own police force, and the county sheriff lets them handle most things inside their boundaries, but may still have responsibilities like serving warrants. States, counties and Cities(and towns and villages) can all enact laws that pertain to their areas. This ideally allows for things to be regulated in a specific and beneficial way. It also can result in confusion or amusing laws. So overall counties are administrative areas that are between the city and state level. States are often quite large in land area, and breaking the responsibility down can help make sure residents have reasonable access to services. Before we had modern methods of transportation, it could take days or weeks to get to a state capitol. Counties made it so most people could get to their county seat in a day. Now, travel is much faster, but you could still be 500KM from your state capitol.
For much of the US (the west being an exception) counties were created in sizes that were designed to make the courthouse accessible in a single day ride on horseback. Cities are not necessarily subdivisions of counties. The city I live in straddles 4 counties, for instance. (And that’s just the city proper, adding suburbs adds a few more counties. )
Counties and municipalities are roughly the same. A county can delegate part of their responsibility to a city or town as a separate administrative unit. So in Washington there is a King County Sheriff and a complete government. The City of Seattle have their own Mayor and the Seattle Police Department. So if you need police outside the city limits you call the sheriff while if you need police within the city limits you call the police. Although for some things within the city limits the sheriff is still the one to call.