Image:Renville County Courthouse MN.jpg ] A county seat is an administrative center for a county or civil parish primarily used in the United States In the Northeast United States the statutory term often is shire town, lt;ref>E.g., 24 Vt. Stat. Ann. § 2 ("The county of Addison is formed of the towns of Addison, Bridgeport, Bristol, Cornwall, Ferrisburgh, Goshen, Granville, Hancock, Leicester, Lincoln, Middlebury, Monkton, New Haven, Orwell, Panton, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham, Starksboro, Waltham, Weybridge, Whiting, the city of Vergennes and so much of Lake Champlain as lies in this state west of the towns in the county adjoining the lake. Middlebury is the shire town."). but colloquially county seat is the term in use there. Parts of the Canada Maritimes also use the term shire town. In England Wales and Republic of Ireland the term county town is used. This term is still sometimes used colloquially in Scotland and Northern Ireland but today neither are divided into administrative counties – instead being divided, respectively, into council area and district . Louisiana uses Parish (country subdivision) instead of counties, and the administrative center is a parish seat Alaska is organized into "list of boroughs and census areas in Alaska , which are large districts, and the administrative center is known as a borough seat Counties of the United States as in England and Canada function as administrative subdivisions of a state and have no sovereign jurisdiction of their own, although some have authority to enact and enforce Municipal code Counties administer state or provincial law at the local level as part of the decentralization of state/provincial authority. In many U.S. states, state government is further decentralized by dividing counties into township , to provide local government services to residents of the county who do not live in Municipal corporation city or town . A county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include, but are not limited to, the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia and Howard County, Maryland (Ellicott City, Maryland the county seat of Howard County, is the largest unincorporated county seat in the United States, followed by Towson, Maryland the county seat of Baltimore County, Maryland ) The county courthouse and county administration are usually located in the county seat, but some functions may also be conducted in other parts of the county, especially if it is geographically large. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats; in those states, counties exist today as little more than lines drawn on a map. Vermont has shire towns but little county government, consisting only of a Superior Court and Sheriff (as an officer of the court . In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments (there are no unincorporated areas in the state, that is, all land area in the state is within a town). As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, and the state government now operates the registries of deeds and sheriffs offices in those former counties. Two counties in South Dakota Shannon County, South Dakota and Todd County, South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county. Their county-level services are provided by Fall River County, South Dakota and Tripp County, South Dakota respectively.

Cities within multiple counties

Partial list of major US cities that extend into multiple counties: * Atlanta Georgia (U.S. state) seat of Fulton County also extends into DeKalb County Cobb County Clayton County and Gwinnett County counties. * Dallas Texas sits mainly in Dallas County, Texas of which it is the county seat, but also extends into the adjacent counties of Collin County, Texas Denton County, Texas Kaufman County, Texas and Rockwall County, Texas * Kansas City, Missouri Missouri is situated in four counties, Jackson, Clay, Cass and Platte. It is the county seat of Jackson County, along with nearby Independence, Missouri * New York City a single city, stretches across five counties. Often referred to as the boroughs of New York, each is also a separate geographic (unorganized) county (although the northern tip of New York County above the Harlem River extends into the Borough of the Bronx), with city-sponsored borough officials (although there are elected district attorneys, clerks, and other county officers). The five counties that compose New York City are Bronx County (The Bronx , Kings County (Brooklyn , New York County (Manhattan , Queens County (Queens , and Richmond County (Staten Island . The "county seats" of Richmond and Queens County are effectively neighborhoods, though they correspond roughly to the location of borough hall.

City-counties and independent cities

In Virginia there are 39 independent city (as of 2001), which are legally distinct from the counties that surround them. An independent city interacts with the state government directly whereas towns, the only other type of municipal government authority in Virginia, do so through the county government apparatus. In many of Virginias counties, the county government offices are located within the independent cities of their neighboring counties. Also, for certain statistical purposes, some independent cities are considered part of the county from which they separated. For example, the Fairfax, Virginia is separate from Fairfax County, Virginia the countys offices lie within the city, and the city is combined with Fairfax County statistically. Similarly, the Baltimore, Maryland Maryland is also an independent city, and much like Fairfax, surrounded on three sides by a county of the same name. However, unlike Fairfax, "Baltimore City", as it is officially known, is not politically or statistically connected with surrounding Baltimore County. Besides Baltimore City and the independent cities of Virginia, there are only two other independent cities in the United States: St. Louis, Missouri Missouri and Carson City, Nevada Nevada Several other cities, among them San Francisco California Philadelphia Pennsylvania Multiple districts, boroughs, and townships located within Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania were merged into the existing City of Philadelphia by the Act of Consolidation, 1854 The County itself was later merged into the City by the 1952 Home Rule Charter, forming one legal entity. Denver Colorado Augusta, Georgia and New Orleans Louisiana are all Consolidated city-county (or in the case of Louisiana, a parish), with a consolidated government. In all of the named cities except for New Orleans, the city and county names are identical; in New Orleans, the city is coextensive with Orleans Parish. Similar to Virginia, the Canadian province of Ontario has 17 List of Ontario separated municipalities which are municipalities that interact directly with the province without an intermediary county. Although administratively and legally separate from the county, many of these cities still serve as the seat of the county that surrounds them. Ontario also has several Census divisions of Ontario#Single-tier municipalities many of which serve as a single county government with no lower municipal governments below it. In these cases, the county effectively isthe local government in these areas, with a communityin the county assigned as the seat, even though it has no municipal government of its own.

U.S. counties with more than one county seat

Most counties have only one county seat. However, some counties in Alabama Arkansas Iowa Kentucky Massachusetts Mississippi Missouri New Hampshire New York and Vermont have two or more county seats, usually located on opposite sides of the county. An example is Harrison County, Mississippi which lists both Biloxi, Mississippi and Gulfport, Mississippi as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult. There have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride (and jobs) for the towns involved. There are 34 counties with multiple county seats (no more than two each) in 11 states: *St. Clair County, Alabama *Arkansas County, Arkansas *Carroll County, Arkansas *Clay County, Arkansas *Craighead County, Arkansas *Franklin County, Arkansas *Logan County, Arkansas *Mississippi County, Arkansas *Prairie County, Arkansas *Sebastian County, Arkansas *Yell County, Arkansas *Lee County, Iowa *Campbell County, Kentucky *Kenton County, Kentucky *Essex County, Massachusetts *Middlesex County, Massachusetts *Plymouth County, Massachusetts *Bolivar County, Mississippi *Carroll County, Mississippi *Chickasaw County, Mississippi *Harrison County, Mississippi *Hinds County, Mississippi *Jasper County, Mississippi *Jones County, Mississippi *Panola County, Mississippi *Tallahatchie County, Mississippi *Yalobusha County, Mississippi *Jackson County, Missouri *Hillsborough County, New Hampshire *Guilford County, North Carolina *Bennington County, Vermont

Lists of U.S. county seats by state

The state with the greatest number of counties is Texas, with 254. | border"0" |----- | * List of Alabama county seats * List of Alaska borough seats * List of Arizona county seats * List of Arkansas county seats * List of California county seats * List of Colorado county seats * List of Connecticut county seats * List of Delaware county seats * List of Florida county seats * List of Georgia county seats | * List of Hawaii county seats * List of Idaho county seats * List of Illinois county seats * List of Indiana county seats * List of Iowa county seats * List of Kansas county seats * List of Kentucky county seats * List of Louisiana parish seats * List of Maine county seats * List of Maryland county seats | * List of Massachusetts county seats * List of Michigan county seats * List of Minnesota county seats * List of Mississippi county seats * List of Missouri county seats * List of Montana county seats * List of Nebraska county seats * List of Nevada county seats * List of New Hampshire county seats * List of New Jersey county seats | * List of New Mexico county seats * List of New York county seats * List of North Carolina county seats * List of North Dakota county seats * List of Ohio county seats * List of Oklahoma county seats * List of Oregon county seats * List of Pennsylvania county seats * List of Rhode Island county seats * List of South Carolina county seats | * List of South Dakota county seats * List of counties in Tennessee * List of Texas county seats * List of Utah county seats * List of Vermont county seats * List of Virginia county seats * List of Washington county seats * List of West Virginia county seats * List of Wisconsin county seats * List of Wyoming county seats |}

Similar administrative seats in other countries

*Amphoe *Municipio (Mexico)

References

External links

* http://www.naco.org/ National Association of Counties] Category:Capitals Category:Counties of the United States ar:مقر المقاطعة bg:Окръжен център de:County Seat es:Sede de condado fr:Siège du comté it:Capoluogo di contea nl:County seat ja:郡庁所在地 no:Fylkessete pt:Sede de condado ro:Sediul unui comitat din Statele Unite ale Americii ru:Окружной центр (США) simple:County seat vi:Quận lỵ