Four messages attached below that reply to the question on the number
of U.S. counties.
Johnnie
--------------------------------------------
--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 16:45:24 -0500
From: "Frank M. Howell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: How many counties in USA? <fwd>
Sender: "Frank M. Howell" <[log in to unmask]>
The typical number of counties or county-equivalents that I run across is
3,141..but the Census Bureau's website (www.census.gov) probably has an
official count based on a FIPS file or their working interpretation.
Frank Howell
Mississippi State University
> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 15:24:30 -0600
> From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: How many counties in USA? <fwd>
> Sender: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> >As a colleague is reviewing the digital cadastral mapping system
> in a number
> >of countries, it would be appreciated if someone could advise a
> website that
> >provides an overview of cadastral mapping in USA.
>
> There is an amateur radio (ham) award for making one contact in every
> county in the USA - the figure they use is 3076.
>
> --Bob Wier
>
> Bob Wier
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
> 3:24 PM Friday, May 28, 1999
> Unix/Internet Administrator
> Rocky Mountain College, Billings MT.
>
> --- End Forwarded Message ---
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message two:
For the 1990 Census the U.S. Census Bureau recognized 3006 counties. If
statistically equivilent areas are included that number rises to 3141. You
might be able to find more up-to-date info on the Census web site
http://www.census.gov.
> >As a colleague is reviewing the digital cadastral mapping system in a number
> >of countries, it would be appreciated if someone could advise a website that
> >provides an overview of cadastral mapping in USA.
>
> There is an amateur radio (ham) award for making one contact in every
> county in the USA - the figure they use is 3076.
>
> --Bob Wier
---
Andy McIntire Cartographer
US Census Bureau 301-457-1116
TIGER Mapping Branch [log in to unmask]
-----------------------------------------------
Q. What is smarter, longitude or latitude?
A. Longitude, because it has 360 degrees.
--------------------------------------------------------------
message three
In the United States there are about 3070 counties in 49 states. The state
of Alaska technically does not have counties; the state does a lot of the
things counties do in most of the rest of the states, it has some boroughs,
and the U.S. Census Bureau recognizes about 23 census areas there. The
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has subdivisions known as municipios. The
District of Columbia, seat of the national government, has no counties now
but had two throughout most of the 1800s. In the state of Louisiana the
county-equivalents are known as parishes.
A number of states have independent cities in addition to their counties:
1 each in Maryland, Missouri, and Nevada, and a little over 40 in Virginia.
Independent cities have their own courts and are "independent" of the
county system in their states. There are also some unusual county-city
combinations. Philadelphia city is congruent with Philadelphia County and
has pretty much taken over the county functions. New York City covers five
counties.
Counties in the United States perform a number of functions; although
judicial services are the core nearly everywhere, they are not the same in
every state. As part of their judicial function, active counties and
independent cities usually keep track of land ownership and taxation, but
there are caveats here, too. One is that the cadastral function (which is
not the focus of our project) is not always performed by the counties. In
Rhode Island counties are practically moribund, and in Connecticut they
exist only as named geographic areas, the institution/functional component
having been eliminated by the state in 1960. I believe that in Vermont
municipalites known as towns (sub-county units) handle real estate records
and taxes. In Virginia, some of the independent cities have annexed (and
therefore replaced) their parent counties.
A second caveat is that nearly every county in the U.S. has changed its
territory two or more times (some as many as two dozen times), so that
tracking the history of a particular parcel of land may require research in
the records of several counties. Our project is compiling those changes in
county jurisdiction.
Nearly all the land in the United States that was acquired by federal
government from foreign countries and Native American tribes before being
organized into states (ie. roughly, the area outside the thirteen original
colonies/states) was surveyed according to the federal rectangular survey
system that has created 36-square-mile "townships" composed of
1-mile-square "sections." The government then gave a little bit of that
land to public entities and sold (or gave) the rest to private parties.
That survey constitutes the foundation for the cadastre in most of the
country, I believe, and it has been written about by many scholars and
surveyors.
As for the existence of a single web site that summarizes information about
cadastral mapping in the U.S., I do not know of one. Instead, I suspect
you will have to piece together information from several. You might try
the US Geological Survey or Federal Land Office. I do know that over the
last couple of decades there have been a number of attempts to digitize
cadastral maps and information, but I suspect that what has been actually
accomplished covers only an extremely small fraction of the privately owned
land in the U.S.
John H. Long
Editor, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
The Newberry Library
60 W. Walton Street
Chicago, Ill. 60610-3380
Tel: 312-255-3602
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
FAX: 312-255-3513
------------------------------------------------------------------
message four
After taking a look at the ESRI data that comes with ArcView, there
are 3,140 counties in the United States. This includes Alaska and
Hawaii.
mike
Michael A. Carson
Senior GIS Programmer/Analyst
City of Santa Monica - Water Division
1212 5th St., Santa Monica, CA, 90401
Tel: 310-458-8231
Fax: 310-393-6697
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.santa-monica.org
--- End Forwarded Message ---
|
