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Howder Travel Adventures: United States Counties that I have Visited

995 Counties Visited = 31.7% of Counties in the United States

Counties in the United States that I have Visited
Source of underlying map: Wikimedia Commons under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


On August 14, 2002, I crossed the Red River of the North on Interstate 94 to enter Fargo, North Dakota. Concurrently I arrived at my 50th and final state in the United States. With that goal successfully attained I decided to focus on the next level down: the counties and county-equivalents. I thought I'd done pretty well until I plotted it on a map and demonstrated to myself how little of the country I'd actually seen. These results are paltry compared to some people's county "life lists" that I have seen, but it's at least a start.

Progress by State

State              Total Counties   Counties Visited	Percent Visited
			
Alabama                  67                 19               28.4%
Alaska                   27                  4               14.8%
Arizona                  15                  9               60.0%
Arkansas                 75                  1                1.3%
California               58                 24               41.4%
Colorado                 64                 18               28.1%
Connecticut               8                  4               50.0%
Delaware                  3                  3              100.0%
Florida                  67                 20               29.9%
Georgia                 159                 27               17.0%
Hawaii                    5                  2               40.0%
Idaho                    44                  3                6.8%
Illinois                102                 40               39.2%
Indiana                  92                 28               30.4%
Iowa                     99                 26               26.3%
Kansas                  105                  9                8.6%
Kentucky                120                 36               30.0%
Louisiana                64                 25               39.1%
Maine                    16                 11               68.8%
Maryland                 24                 24              100.0%
Massachusetts            14                  5               35.7%
Michigan                 83                 20               24.1%
Minnesota                87                 23               26.4%
Mississippi              82                 24               29.3%
Missouri                115                 36               31.3%
Montana                  56                  1                1.8%
Nebraska                 93                 21               22.6%
Nevada                   17                  5               29.4%
New Hampshire            10                  3               30.0%
New Jersey               21                 13               61.9%
New Mexico               33                 13               39.4%
New York                 62                 36               58.1%
North Carolina          100                 45               45.0%
North Dakota             53                  1                1.9%
Ohio                     88                 29               33.0%
Oklahoma                 77                  2                2.6%
Oregon                   36                 13               36.1%
Pennsylvania             67                 40               59.7%
Rhode Island              5                  3               60.0%
South Carolina           46                 20               43.5%
South Dakota             66                 14               21.2%
Tennessee                95                 29               30.5%
Texas                   254                 37               14.6%
Utah                     29                 12               41.4%
Vermont                  14                  6               42.9%
Virginia                134                117               87.3%
Washington               39                 16               41.0%
West Virginia            55                 15               27.3%
Wisconsin                72                 52               72.2%
Wyoming                  23                 10               43.5%
			
District of Columbia      1                  1              100.0%

==================================================================

UNITED STATES          3141                995               31.7%


Are there really 3141 counties in the United States?

There were 3141 counties and county-equivalent administrative units listed by the United States Bureau of the Census as of 2006. In Alaska they are called boroughs and in Louisiana they are called parishes. Examples of county-equivalent administrative units are independent cities (mainly in Virginia, but also a few others), several named census areas that are part of the larger Unorganized Borough in Alaska, and the District of Columbia which is neither a county nor a state. However for purposes of the Census, these are all considered the equivalent of counties. This can get complicated so if this topic interests you, check out Wikipedia's County (United States) page for a technical discussion.

Do Counties change?

Counties and county-equivalents do change, although not nearly as frequently as when the United States was young and growing. Here are a few fairly recent examples:
  • Two locations in Virginia gave up their independent city status and became part of their surrounding counties; South Boston in 1995, and Clifton Forge in 2001.
  • Dade County, Florida was renamed Miami-Dade County in 1997.
  • Portions of Yellowstone National Park located in Montana, formerly a county-equivalent, were incorporated into surrounding counties in 1999.
  • There have been a number of recent changes to Alaska's boroughs and unorganized boroughs.
  • Cibola County, New Mexico was formed in 1981 and Broomfield County, Colorado was formed in 2001.
So even today the "number of counties" is a moving target.




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