What is a 'county' in American parlance?

elburcher

the largest administrative division of a U.S. state: Miami, Florida, is in Dade County. http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0390426.html Jun 08 07, 3:53 PM

zbeckabee

The term county is used in 48 of the 50 states of the United States for a tier of organization immediately below the statewide tier and above (where created) the municipal or civil township tier. Louisiana has entities similar to counties but calls them parishes. Alaska is divided into boroughs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County#United_States Jun 08 07, 7:38 PM

queproblema

Simply put, Billy, 48 of the states are divided into sections called counties that are typically larger than a city or town and generally contain several cities and/or towns. They each have a government, usually headed by an elected sheriff, subordinate to the state government. Scroll down to "United States" on this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff But it can't really be put simply. There is a great deal of overlapping and confusion of county and city governments and the providing and funding of services such as water, power, police, fire suppression, mail, library, health, and education. Most cities have metropolitan areas exceeding the city limits. These areas fall under the jurisdiction of the county. Some cities find themselves straddling counties! It's a general mess and details vary from state to state. You would probably have to live in a county for a while to catch on. Then when you move to another state you can start figuring out its peculiarities! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_%28United_States%29 Jun 08 07, 9:21 PM