Texas has 254 counties. Delaware has 3. Every other state falls somewhere in between, and how many a state ended up with mostly comes down to when it was settled and how big its founders thought a county ought to be.
To get the current count, we used Saturday Night Science to tally every county and county equivalent in the Census Bureau’s newest American Community Survey (2020-2024). That comes to 3,143 across the 50 states.
The average state has 63 counties. The longest county name in America belongs to Connecticut’s Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, at 46 characters, and the most common is Washington County, which shows up 31 times.
Here’s how every state stacks up, starting with the state that has the most counties: Texas.
On the map
Number of counties by state, mapped
Source: HomeSnacks
Texas has 254 counties, the most in America by a wide margin. They range from Harris County, home to Houston, which has more people than about half the states, to Loving County out in the Permian Basin, which has fewer than 100. The usual explanation for the huge number is that counties were drawn small enough that anyone could ride to the county seat and back in a day.
Georgia has 159 counties, second only to Texas, even though it’s only about the 24th-biggest state by area. The state kept carving out new ones through the early 1900s, largely because every county got its own seats in the legislature, and a 1945 constitutional change finally capped the number.
Virginia comes in third with 133, but there’s a catch: 38 of those are independent cities that sit outside any county, like Richmond, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. Virginia has almost all of the independent cities in America — only Baltimore, St. Louis, and Carson City join it.
Kentucky packs 120 counties into a state that ranks in the bottom half for land area, which works out to a lot of very small counties. The last one, McCreary County, was created in 1912.
Missouri has 115 county equivalents: 114 counties plus the independent city of St. Louis, which split off from St. Louis County in 1876 and has been going it alone ever since.
Kansas has 105 counties, many of them drawn up in a hurry as settlers poured in during the late 1800s. Picking a county seat was a big enough deal that towns fought “county seat wars” over it, and a few of those turned violent.
Illinois has 102 counties, but one of them does most of the heavy lifting. Cook County, home to Chicago, has about 40% of the state’s residents and more people than more than half the states.
North Carolina has an even 100 counties, stretching from the Outer Banks to the Great Smoky Mountains. Wake and Mecklenburg, home to Raleigh and Charlotte, are the biggest.
Iowa has 99 counties, and most of them are laid out in a neat grid of near-identical squares. Iowans know the number well: politicians make a point of visiting all 99 before caucus season.
Tennessee rounds out the top ten with 95 counties, split among the state’s three “grand divisions” — East, Middle, and West Tennessee.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How We Counted The Counties In Each State
We used Saturday Night Science to count every county in the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 American Community Survey, the newest county-level release. For every state, we looked at:
- Number of counties and county equivalents
- People per county (state population divided by its number of counties)
We ranked the states from the most counties to the fewest. States with the same number share a rank. People per county is there for context and doesn’t affect the ranking.
The Census counts “county equivalents” as counties, and so do we. That means Louisiana’s parishes, Alaska’s boroughs and census areas, and Virginia’s 38 independent cities all count. Connecticut is the odd one out: it abolished county government in 1960, and in 2022 the Census swapped its eight old counties for nine planning regions, which is why they show up here.
We updated this report for 2026. Texas has the most counties in America with 254, and Delaware has the fewest with 3.
The full list
Table: Number Of Counties By State
Click any column to sort. Search by state name.
| Rank | State | # Of Counties | People Per County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 254 | 118,852 |
| 2 | Georgia | 159 | 68,808 |
| 3 | Virginia | 133 | 65,452 |
| 4 | Kentucky | 120 | 37,790 |
| 5 | Missouri | 115 | 53,842 |
| 6 | Kansas | 105 | 28,069 |
| 7 | Illinois | 102 | 124,459 |
| 8 | North Carolina | 100 | 107,304 |
| 9 | Iowa | 99 | 32,429 |
| 10 | Tennessee | 95 | 74,383 |
| 11 | Nebraska | 93 | 21,276 |
| 12 | Indiana | 92 | 74,468 |
| 13 | Ohio | 88 | 134,208 |
| 14 | Minnesota | 87 | 65,971 |
| 15 | Michigan | 83 | 121,419 |
| 16 | Mississippi | 82 | 35,936 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 77 | 52,320 |
| 18 | Arkansas | 75 | 40,659 |
| 19 | Wisconsin | 72 | 82,151 |
| 20 | Alabama | 67 | 75,922 |
| 20 | Florida | 67 | 334,568 |
| 20 | Pennsylvania | 67 | 194,308 |
| 23 | South Dakota | 66 | 13,749 |
| 24 | Louisiana | 64 | 72,062 |
| 24 | Colorado | 64 | 91,597 |
| 26 | New York | 62 | 320,199 |
| 27 | California | 58 | 677,369 |
| 28 | Montana | 56 | 19,944 |
| 29 | West Virginia | 55 | 32,334 |
| 30 | North Dakota | 53 | 14,808 |
| 31 | South Carolina | 46 | 115,135 |
| 32 | Idaho | 44 | 43,960 |
| 33 | Washington | 39 | 200,413 |
| 34 | Oregon | 36 | 118,175 |
| 35 | New Mexico | 33 | 64,250 |
| 36 | Alaska | 30 | 24,524 |
| 37 | Utah | 29 | 116,977 |
| 38 | Maryland | 24 | 258,584 |
| 39 | Wyoming | 23 | 25,322 |
| 40 | New Jersey | 21 | 444,943 |
| 41 | Nevada | 17 | 187,330 |
| 42 | Maine | 16 | 86,739 |
| 43 | Arizona | 15 | 491,923 |
| 44 | Massachusetts | 14 | 503,147 |
| 44 | Vermont | 14 | 46,222 |
| 46 | New Hampshire | 10 | 139,487 |
| 47 | Connecticut | 9 | 402,723 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 5 | 220,360 |
| 48 | Hawaii | 5 | 289,047 |
| 50 | Delaware | 3 | 340,397 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates (counties and county equivalents).
Summary
Conclusion: The States With The Most Counties
Texas has the most counties in America with 254, and it isn’t close. Georgia is a distant second, followed by Virginia.
On the other end, Delaware gets by with just 3 counties. California has the most people per county, at 677,369, while South Dakota has the fewest, with about 13,749 residents per county.
The states with the most counties in the United States are Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, North Carolina, Iowa, and Tennessee.
Questions and answers
Counties By State FAQs
Which state has the most counties?
Texas has the most counties of any state with 254. Georgia and Virginia are next.
Which state has the fewest counties?
Delaware has the fewest counties in the country with just 3.
How many counties are there in the United States?
There are 3,143 counties and county equivalents in the 50 states, according to the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 American Community Survey. Add Washington, D.C., which the Census treats as a county equivalent, and you get one more.
What is the most common county name?
Washington County is the most common county name in America. 31 states have a county (or, in Louisiana’s case, a parish) by that name.
What is the longest county name in the US?
Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region in Connecticut has the longest county name in the country, at 46 characters.
