United States Counties that I have Visited
1,698 Counties Visited = 54.0% of Counties in the United States
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Image courtesy of: Mob Rule |
On August 14, 2002, I crossed the Red River of the North on Interstate 94 to enter Fargo, North Dakota. Concurrently I arrived at my 50th and final state in the United States. With that goal successfully attained I decided to focus on the next level of achievement: the counties and county-equivalents. I thought I'd done pretty well until I plotted it on a map and demonstrated to myself how little of the country I'd actually seen. These results are pretty sparse compared to some people's county "life lists" that I have seen, but at least it's a reasonable start.
Progress by State
State Total Counties Counties Visited Percent Visited Alabama 67 27 40.3% Alaska 30 7 23.3% Arizona 15 15 100.0% Arkansas 75 19 25.3% California 58 25 43.1% Colorado 64 47 73.4% Connecticut 9 9 100.0% Delaware 3 3 100.0% Florida 67 43 64.2% Georgia 159 78 49.1% Hawaii 5 2 40.0% Idaho 44 10 22.7% Illinois 102 58 56.9% Indiana 92 51 55.4% Iowa 99 32 32.3% Kansas 105 17 16.2% Kentucky 120 87 72.5% Louisiana 64 32 50.0% Maine 16 13 81.3% Maryland 24 24 100.0% Massachusetts 14 14 100.0% Michigan 75 69 90.4% Minnesota 87 23 26.4% Mississippi 82 31 37.8% Missouri 115 42 36.5% Montana 56 4 7.1% Nebraska 93 29 31.2% Nevada 17 6 35.3% New Hampshire 10 10 100.0% New Jersey 21 21 100.0% New Mexico 33 22 66.7% New York 62 51 82.3% North Carolina 100 90 90.0% North Dakota 53 6 11.3% Ohio 88 69 78.4% Oklahoma 77 5 6.5% Oregon 36 25 69.4% Pennsylvania 67 67 100.0% Rhode Island 5 5 100.0% South Carolina 46 31 67.4% South Dakota 66 18 27.3% Tennessee 95 54 56.8% Texas 254 69 27.2% Utah 29 22 75.9% Vermont 14 14 100.0% Virginia 133 133 100.0% Washington 39 30 76.9% West Virginia 55 55 100.0% Wisconsin 72 59 81.9% Wyoming 23 18 78.3% District of Columbia 1 1 100.0% ================================================================== UNITED STATES 3144 1698 54.0%
Are there really 3,144 counties in the United States?
There were 3,144 counties and county-equivalent administrative units listed by the United States Bureau of the Census as of 2023. In Alaska they are called boroughs and in Louisiana they are called parishes. Examples of county-equivalent administrative units are independent cities (mainly in Virginia, but also a few others), Connecticut's Councils of Government, several named census areas that are part of the larger Unorganized Borough in Alaska, and the District of Columbia which is neither a county nor a state. However for purposes of the Census, these are all considered the equivalent of counties. This can get complicated so if this topic interests you, check out Wikipedia's "County (United States)" page for a technical discussion.Do Counties change?
Counties and county-equivalents do change, although not nearly as frequently as when the United States was young and growing. Here are a few fairly recent examples:- Connecticut established nine Councils of Government as county-equivalents that replaced eight defunct Counties, as approved by the Census Bureau in 2022.
- There have been a number of changes to Alaska's boroughs and the unorganized borough as recently as 2019. Most recently the Valdez-Cordova Census Area split into the Chugach and Copper River Census Areas.
- Three locations in Virginia gave up their independent city status and became part of their surrounding counties; South Boston in 1995, Clifton Forge in 2001, and the city of Bedford in 2013.
- Shannon County in South Dakota was renamed Oglala Lakota County and the Wade-Hampton Census Area in Alaska was renamed Kusilvak Census Area, both in 2015.
- Portions of Yellowstone National Park located in Montana, formerly a county-equivalent, were incorporated into surrounding counties in 1999.
- Cibola County, New Mexico was formed in 1981 and Broomfield County, Colorado was formed in 2001.