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What is a County?

In the US, each state is broken up into smaller territories usually called counties; although, Alaska has boroughs and Louisiana calls theirs parishes.  Today, there are 3068 counties/county equivalents in the United States. With the exception of Connecticut and Rhode Island, these counties have operational governments who carry out state-mandated duties, which include property assessment, records keeping, maintenance for parks and roads, law enforcement and criminal investigation, administration of election and judicial functions, and poverty relief. In addition to this, more and more counties are rapidly moving into other areas, including programs relating to child welfare and education, consumer protection, economic development, employment/training, planning and zoning, waste management and water quality. The responsibilities and powers vested in a county varies from state to state. 

Counties are usually governed by an elected administrative body: a board of supervisors, county commission, county freeholders, county council, or county legislature, usually headed by a single person that the remainder collaborates with and/ or reports to. In many states, the county governing board holds the power of all 3 branches of traditional government (within the limitations of the county as mandated by the state). It has the legislative power to enact ordinances for the county; it has the executive power to oversee the executive operations of county government; and it has quasi-judicial power with regard to certain limited matters.

For more information on specific counties, please see the AFR county pages by state, either via the County Menu to the left or the State tab above.

Each state and county/county equivalent is different, therefore, the types of data available at the county level will vary depending on the state, the county and the types of services the county is responsible for.  For more detailed information about a specific county, visit its page here on AFR. 

Below is a very general list of the things you might be able to find at the county level- the rule of thumb we offer is that the county is the best place to start any search, unless the organization you are querying is state based, as would be the case with the state income tax office and so on.

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