Slide 12 of 29
Notes:
Counties are the primary subdivision of most states. A number of geographic entities are not legally designated as a county, but are recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as equivalent to a county for data presentation purposes. These include the boroughs and census areas in Alaska; parishes in Louisiana; and cities that are independent of any county in Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. Because they contain no primary legal divisions, the Census Bureau treats the District of Columbia and Guam each as equivalent to a county (as well as equivalent to a state) for data presentation purposes.
Here we see a reference map from American FactFinder that shows the many counties in the western portion of the U.S.
Speaker Notes: Other division recognized as county equivalents: municipios in Puerto Rico, districts and islands in American Samoa, municipalities in the Northern Mariana Islands, and islands in the Virgin Islands.
A county is a minor civil division in American Samoa.
City and Borough in Alaska: A legally established geographic entity in Alaska, which the U.S. Census Bureau treats as the statistical equivalent of a county in other states; also, in Alaska, a type of incorporated place. This designation is new for Census 2000.
