Discover the 7 U.S. States with the Most Counties

1. Texas — 254 Counties

Texas tops the list with the most counties throughout the US. It has a total of 254 counties. To make it easier, the counties are broken up into districts. About 20 percent of the counties make up a majority of the population, 22 million of the almost 30 million inhabitants. These are the counties near major cities like Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio.

When Texas was no longer under Mexican rule and became an official state in 1836, there were only 23 counties. Over time, those counties broke down into smaller and smaller counties. The last county was established in 1921.

Many of the counties get their names from famous people throughout history, especially soldiers. Some examples are George Washington Cottle as the influence for the naming of Cottle County, who died defending the Alamo. Robert M. Coleman was the influence for Coleman County. He signed the Declaration of Independence for Texas and was a soldier for the Battle of San Jacinto.

However, some counties come from Spanish or Native American words and tribes. For example, there’s Cherokee County, to represent the Cherokee Tribe. Brazos County is so named because the Brazos River runs through it, which comes from the Spanish phrase meaning “the arms of God.”

2. Georgia — 159 Counties

The state with the second-most number of counties in the US is Georgia. Despite being in second place, it doesn’t even come close to matching the number of counties that Texas has. It’s about 100 short, with 159 counties.

When originally established, Georgia had eight counties. In 1777, these counties weren’t counties. Instead, when the counties were created, the word used to describe these administrative districts was the word parishes. These eight parishes were Burke, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Richmond, and Wilkes.

It might be surprising that such a small state made it to second place. However, there was a good reason why Georgia divided itself up so small. The people who lived on the land used it mostly for farming, ranching, and lumber.

These workers were busy and couldn’t spend days leaving their land. So the nearest county seat town or city needed to be close enough that they could visit it, handle their business, and make it back home on a wagon or horse.

For a while, there were up to 161 counties. But other states didn’t like how many counties Georgia had, and a constitutional amendment was made to limit the number of counties. In Georgia, the limit was 159, which meant they had to combine some counties.

3. Virginia — 133 Counties

Virginia is a little interesting. Technically, there are only 95 counties, which would tie it with Tennessee. However, included in the count are independent cities.

For census purposes, independent cities are essentially the same as counties. They are cities that don’t fall into the zoning for any of the already established counties. Many of the cities are small but remain independent cities because they were grandfathered in.

Because of these numerous independent cities, a total of 38, there are technically 133 counties in Virginia. Some of the cities have the same name as counties also in the state, though not necessarily near them, like Richmond, Roanoke, and Fairfax.

4. Kentucky — 120 Counties

Kentucky currently has 120 counties. The last county was added in 1912. After, the government decided 120 was more than enough counties for the state. However, many of the current counties are now further broken into sub-counties or county subdivisions.

There are a total of 493 subdivisions. For example, Anderson County, established in 1827, came about from a combination of what was once Franklin, Washington, and Mercer County.

Because of these merges, some of the counties are very different in size. For example, Pike County is 788 square miles while Gallatin County is only 99 square miles.

The first three counties established in Kentucky were Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln in 1780. Jefferson and Fayette County are still the two largest in the state in terms of people with a population of 773,399 and 320,347 respectively.

5. Missouri — 115 Counties

Like Virginia, Missouri also has independent cities. However, it only has one, St. Louis. There are 114 counties in Missouri, and one independent city, for a total of 115 counties or county-like areas.

Most of the county names in Missouri come from politicians, including presidents, postmasters, and senators. The rest come from heroes of war, natural resources in the area, famous explorers, and even previous US territories.

Missouri started with five counties; Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, Saint Charles, Saint Louis, and Ste. Genevieve. Later, when the Platte Purchase provided more land to Missouri, the state created six additional counties in the northwest tip of the state. Breaking down these 11 provided the rest of the counties present today.

The average population in every county is 53,721. In each individual county, the actual number ranges from 990,414 to 1,955. Additionally, the sizes range from 1,178 square miles to a mere 61.9 square miles. The smallest area is St. Louis, the independent state.

6. Kansas — 105 Counties

Some of the counties throughout Kansas get their name from Native American languages, such as Miami County and Nemaha County. The rest come from important people to the state of Kansas, such as senators, the founder of the American Red Cross, and soldiers.

County names from important historical figures from America tend to be on the more eastern side of the state, while counties named after soldiers are more on the western side.

When Kansas first became an established part of the US, there were 36 counties. The rest came about from breaking down some of the counties, or from areas that weren’t organized during the creation of Kansas.

There were an additional 28 counties established at one point, but over time, these no longer exist. These counties vanished due to name changes, merging of counties, splitting of counties, and just overall reorganization.

Illinois — 102 Counties

Illinois has a total of 102 counties. Out of these 102, the most notable is Cook County. This is not only the most populated county in all of Illinois but it is the second most populated county in the entire United States, behind Los Angeles County.

Cook County only stretches out over 945 square miles but has a population of over five million people. Cook County is home to Chicago. Over 40 percent of the total population of Illinois resides in this county. It’s named after an Attorney General named Daniel Pop Cook.

Meanwhile, only one county, out of the two original counties of Illinois still exists today. This is St. Clair County, and it is the oldest county in Illinois. St. Clair County existed even before Illinois became a state.