The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states of the United States for the level of local government below the state itself. Louisiana uses the term "parishes" and Alaska uses "boroughs". The only county in the District of Columbia is "District of Columbia County."

Note that in Virginia, any municipality that is incorporated as a city legally becomes independent of any county. The statistics below do not include Virginia independent cities. The only Virginia statistic affected is "smallest county by area"; if independent cities are included, Falls Church becomes the smallest "county" in the state, and in fact the smallest county-level political subdivision in the United States, at 2.0 square miles (5 km²). The three independent cities in other states (Baltimore, Maryland, Carson City, Nevada, and St. Louis, Missouri) are also not included in these lists.

Note also that in Alaska, most of the land area of the state has no county-level government. Those parts of the state are divided by the United States Census Bureau into census areas, which are NOT boroughs. The state's largest statistical division by area is the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, which is larger than any of the state's boroughs. Also, the city of Anchorage is legally a municipality, which is also an independent city and therefore in no borough. It has nearly three times the population of the state's most populous borough.

By size (square miles)

By population (as of 2000)

External links

• US Census Quick Facts
• For a state map showing the counties, select in http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/ the state and select "view map"; select a county to obtain data about it.
• For a table of counties of a state, with areas, populations, densities and more (using miles), select the state in [1].
• Map of the US showing population density per county (pdf, see p.6)