I’m from the Philippines and we divide things differently here. The country is divided into provinces, which are divided into cities/municipalities, which are divided into barangays.
So I looked at a map of Washington and saw that Seattle is not its own county, but is a part of a county. So are states in the USA divided into counties, which are then divided into towns and cities?
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Depends on the individual State. There is no nationwide plan or structure. Some states don’t use counties at all.
In general, a county is just a division or part of the state. Their responsibilities vary depending on the state.
In general, there are county elected officials that include the sheriff, courts, recorder of deeds, planning, etc….
Within the county, there are different municipalities. Depending on the state, these are called boroughs, cities, towns, townships, villages, etc…. These municipalities can enact their own land use regulations, schools, polices, etc…
Sometimes, a city becomes so big, it occupies an entire county. Then, you can get city-counties, like Philadelphia, where the county is the city. New York City is actually five “counties” or boroughs.
North Carolina has 100 counties. If you live in a county, you can only go to school grades 1-12 in that county, and people get super strict about regions in counties regarding school. Counties here have officials that see over things in the county, they have offices, and meetings. The county seat is kind of the capital of each county. Kind of, because sometimes it’s not the most popular town or city in a county. In our county seat, there’s the sheriff’s department, college, humane society…no hospital. You have to drive 10 miles up the road for that.
The city and county police, and emergency services are kind of like Dominos Pizza. It’s all about what area you’re in in that county.
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