How Many Counties Are in Each US State?

The United States is divided into 3,144 counties and county equivalents across the 50 states and the District of Columbia — but they're spread wildly unevenly. Texas alone has 254 counties, more than any other state, while Delaware has just 3, the fewest of any state. Together, Texas and Georgia (159 counties) account for more than 13% of every county in the nation.

Why the imbalance? Mostly history. Eastern states were carved into small counties in the 1700s and 1800s, when a county seat had to be reachable by a day's horseback ride — Georgia's 159 counties are the legacy of that era. Western states, organized later around railroads and automobiles, drew far bigger units: Arizona manages with 15, Nevada with 17. And "county" itself is flexible: Louisiana has parishes, Alaska has boroughs and census areas, and Virginia's 38 independent cities each count as their own county equivalent.

How to read this table

Each row shows one state (plus DC) and its total number of counties and county equivalents, sorted from most to fewest. Use it to settle trivia debates, plan multi-county road trips, or understand local government geography.

Want to see them? Explore any county's borders with the county boundary viewer, map data across counties with the county choropleth tool, or look up exactly which county an address falls in with the census geography finder.