Wikipedia:
List of counties in California
The U.S. state of California is divided into fifty-eight counties. Counties are responsible for all elections, property-tax collection, maintenance of public records such as deeds, and local-level courts within their borders, as well as providing law enforcement (through the county sheriff and sheriff's deputies) to areas that do not lie within incorporated cities.
- The county is the default unit of local government (all parts of the state's land are allocated to one of the state's 58 counties). Each county has a Board of Supervisors and is subject to mandatory duties under state law to provide its residents with services like law enforcement, healthcare, road maintenance, and so on. Balancing a county's mandatory and discretionary duties is a very difficult task; any sufficiently injured county taxpayer has standing to sue the county to enforce certain duties where financial distress is no excuse, such as healthcare.
- If residents of a sufficiently large piece of unincorporated county land do not like their county's resource allocation decisions, they can incorporate a city. The city government then takes some of the tax revenue that would have gone to the county, and can impose additional taxes on its residents. It can then choose to provide almost all the services usually provided by the county (and more), or provide only a few and pay the county to do the rest. A city in this last arrangement is called a contract city; this type of contract is generally known among lawyers as the "Lakewood Plan," because it was pioneered by the city of Lakewood in 1954.[1]
- The idea of "opting out" of county control in California has been taken to its logical extremes. Almost all of the city of Vernon is one large industrial zone, while almost all of the town of Los Altos Hills is zoned as residential.
- Due to geographical variations in property tax and
sales tax revenue (the primary revenue source for cities and counties) and differing attitudes towards priorities, there are interesting variations in the levels of various services from one city to the next. For example, the city of Santa Monica is far more generous when it comes to helping the homeless than other cities in Los Angeles County or the county government. - Also, county ordinances do not apply to cities unless they are ratified by each individual city. Thus, for instance, in Los Angeles County, a few cities have not ratified the ordinance requiring the posting of restaurant food safety ratings — even though it was passed many years ago — and in those cities, ratings need not be posted.
- The state of California has one consolidated city-county, San Francisco. The city's board of supervisors govern both aspects, and there is both a city police department and a county sheriff, the latter mostly responsible for operating the county jail.
First establishment of California counties
On January 4, 1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mount Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter. On April 22, the counties of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yola, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding counties was to rename Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, and Yola to Yolo.
The last California county to have been established is Imperial County in 1907.
Table of California counties
The current number of counties was achieved over time by subdivision of many of the larger counties into smaller ones. The links in the column FIPS County Code are to the Census Bureau Info page for that county.
| County | FIPS Code | County Seat | Created | Formed from | Etymology | Population | Area | Map |
| Alameda County | 001 | Oakland | 1853 | Parts of Contra Costa County and Santa Clara County. | Spanish word meaning a "cottonwood grove". | mi² (1,911 km²) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine County | 003 | Markleeville | 1864 | Parts of Amador County, El Dorado County, Calaveras County, Mono County and Tuolumne County. | English word meaning "of, pertaining to, or connected with, the Alps". | mi² ( km²) |
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|
| Amador County | 005 | Jackson | 1854 | Part of Calaveras County. | Jose Maria Amador (1794-1883), a soldier, rancher and miner. In Spanish, the word amador means "lover of inanimate objects". | mi² ( km²) |
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| Butte County | 007 | Oroville | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Calaveras County | 009 | San Andreas | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Colusa County | 011 | Colusa | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Contra Costa County | 013 | Martinez | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Del Norte County | 015 | Crescent City | 1857 | Part of Klamath County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| El Dorado County | 017 | Placerville | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Fresno County | 019 | Fresno | 1856 | Parts of Mariposa County, Merced County and Tulare County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Glenn County | 021 | Willows | 1891 | Part of Colusa County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Humboldt County | 023 | Eureka | 1853 | Part of Trinity County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Imperial County | 025 | El Centro | 1907 | Part of San Diego County.[2] | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Inyo County | 027 | Independence | 1866 | Parts of Mono County and Tulare County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Kern County | 029 | Bakersfield | 1866 | Parts of Los Angeles County and Tulare County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Kings County | 031 | Hanford | 1893 | Part of Tulare County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Lake County | 033 | Lakeport | 1861 | Part of Napa County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Lassen County | 035 | Susanville | 1864 | Parts of Plumas County and Shasta County, and part of now defunct Lake County, Nevada. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Los Angeles County | 037 | Los Angeles | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Madera County | 039 | Madera | 1893 | Part of Fresno County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Marin County | 041 | San Rafael | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Mariposa County | 043 | Mariposa | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties.[3] | Spanish for "butterfly". | mi² ( km²) |
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| Mendocino County | 045 | Ukiah | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Merced County | 047 | Merced | 1855 | Part of Mariposa County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Modoc County | 049 | Alturas | 1874 | Part of Siskiyou County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Mono County | 051 | Bridgeport | 1861 | Parts of Calaveras County, Fresno County and Mariposa County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Monterey County | 053 | Salinas | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Napa County | 055 | Napa | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Nevada County | 057 | Nevada City | 1851 | Part of Yuba County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Orange County | 059 | Santa Ana | 1889 | Part of Los Angeles County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Placer County | 061 | Auburn | 1851 | Parts of Sutter County and Yuba County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Plumas County | 063 | Quincy | 1854 | Part of Butte County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Riverside County | 065 | Riverside | 1893 | Parts of San Bernardino County and San Diego County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Sacramento County | 067 | Sacramento | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Benito County | 069 | Hollister | 1874 | Part of Monterey County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Bernardino County | 071 | San Bernardino | 1853 | Part of Los Angeles County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Diego County | 073 | San Diego | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Francisco County | 075 | San Francisco | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), a Roman Catholic saint and founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Joaquin County | 077 | Stockton | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Luis Obispo County | 079 | San Luis Obispo | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| San Mateo County | 081 | Redwood City | 1856 | Part of San Francisco County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Santa Barbara County | 083 | Santa Barbara | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Santa Clara County | 085 | San Jose | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Santa Cruz County | 087 | Santa Cruz | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Shasta County | 089 | Redding | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Sierra County | 091 | Downieville | 1852 | Part of Yuba County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Siskiyou County | 093 | Yreka | 1852 | Parts of Shasta County and Klamath County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Solano County | 095 | Fairfield | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Sonoma County | 097 | Santa Rosa | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Stanislaus County | 099 | Modesto | 1854 | Part of Tuolumne County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Sutter County | 101 | Yuba City | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Tehama County | 103 | Red Bluff | 1856 | Parts of Butte County, Colusa County and Shasta County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Trinity County | 105 | Weaverville | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Tulare County | 107 | Visalia | 1852 | Part of Mariposa County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Tuolumne County | 109 | Sonora | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Ventura County | 111 | Ventura | 1872 | Part of Santa Barbara County. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Yolo County | 113 | Woodland | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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| Yuba County | 115 | Marysville | 1850 | One of the twenty-seven original counties. | - | mi² ( km²) |
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Defunct counties
- Klamath County was created in 1851 from the northern half of Trinity County, but in 1874 it was divided between Humboldt and Siskiyou counties. Part of the county's territory went to Del Norte in 1857.
- Pautah County was created in 1852 out of territory which, the state of California assumed, was to be ceded to it by the United States Congress from territory in what is now the state of Nevada. When the cession never occurred, the California State Legislature officially abolished the never-created county in 1859.
See also
Notes
- ^ Reynolds, 48-49.
- ^ The most recent county formed.
- ^ Mariposa County was the largest of the state's original counties, but territory that was once part of Mariposa is now part of 12 other counties -- Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Merced, Mono, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, and Tulare.
External links
- California State Association of Counties
- State map showing the county names and linking to county data
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Lists of counties in the United States (parishes in Louisiana; boroughs and census areas in Alaska) |
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