A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States.
In Vermont the statutory term may be shire town, but colloquially "county seat" is the term in use there. Parts of the Canadian Maritimes also use the term "shire town." In England, Wales and Ireland, the term county town is used. This term is still sometimes used colloquially in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but today neither is divided into administrative counties – instead being divided, respectively, into council areas and districts. Louisiana uses parishes instead of counties, and the administrative center is a parish seat. Alaska is organized into "boroughs", which are large districts, and the administrative center is known as a borough seat.
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, the county seat of Howard County, is the largest unincorporated county seat in the United States, followed by Towson, 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.
There are 33 counties with multiple county seats (no more than two each) in 11 states: Coffee County, Alabama
In Vermont, the county seats are called shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff (as an officer of the court), both located in the respective shire town. Bennington County has two shire towns (Manchester for the North Shire, Bennington for the South Shire), but both the Court and the Sheriff are in Bennington.
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 sheriff's offices in those former counties.
Two counties in South Dakota (Shannon and Todd) have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county. Their county-level services are provided by Fall River County and Tripp County, respectively.
List of Alabama county seats>Alabama | List of Alaska borough seats>Alaska | List of Arizona county seats>Arizona | List of Arkansas county seats>Arkansas | List of California county seats>California | List of Colorado county seats>Colorado | List of Connecticut county seats>Connecticut | List of Delaware county seats>Delaware | List of Florida county seats>Florida | List of Georgia county seats>Georgia | List of Hawaii county seats>Hawaii | List of Idaho county seats>Idaho | List of Illinois county seats>Illinois | List of Indiana county seats>Indiana | List of Iowa county seats>Iowa | List of Kansas county seats>Kansas | List of Kentucky county seats>Kentucky | List of Louisiana parish seats>Louisiana | List of Maine county seats>Maine | List of Maryland county seats>Maryland | List of Massachusetts county seats>Massachusetts | List of Michigan county seats>Michigan | List of Minnesota county seats>Minnesota | List of Mississippi county seats>Mississippi | List of Missouri county seats>Missouri | List of Montana county seats>Montana | List of Nebraska county seats>Nebraska | List of Nevada county seats>Nevada | List of New Hampshire county seats>New Hampshire | List of New Jersey county seats>New Jersey | List of New Mexico county seats>New Mexico | List of New York county seats>New York | List of North Carolina county seats>North Carolina | List of North Dakota county seats>North Dakota | List of Ohio county seats>Ohio | List of Oklahoma county seats>Oklahoma | List of Oregon county seats>Oregon | List of Pennsylvania county seats>Pennsylvania | List of Rhode Island county seats>Rhode Island | List of South Carolina county seats>South Carolina | List of South Dakota county seats>South Dakota | List of counties in Tennessee>Tennessee | List of Texas county seats>Texas | List of Utah county seats>Utah | List of Vermont county seats>Vermont | List of Virginia county seats>Virginia | List of Washington county seats>Washington | List of West Virginia county seats>West Virginia | List of Wisconsin county seats>Wisconsin | List of Wyoming county seats>Wyoming |
Category:Capitals Category:Counties of the United States
ar:مقر المقاطعة bg:Окръжен център ca:Seu de comtat de:County Seat es:Sede de condado fr:Siège du comté hi:काउण्टी सीट it:Capoluogo di contea nl:County seat ja:郡庁所在地 no:Fylkessete pt:Sede de condado ro:Reședință de comitat ru:Окружной центр (США) sq:County Seat simple:County seat vi:Quận lỵThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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