List of counties in California

The U.S. state of California is divided into 58 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.
Residents of a sufficiently large piece of unincorporated county land 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 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.

1 First establishment of California counties
2 Table of California counties
3 Defunct counties
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links

First establishment of California counties

County FIPS code of California

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 Yolo, 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. The map at the right hand side also shows the FIPS codes for all the counties (on one map for easy reference).

Population Note: County and city populations are counted by two agencies, one the California Department of Finance (CDF) January 2008 data , and also US Census Bureau July 2008 data, using different counting methodology. California claims US Census consistently underreports due to difficulty in tracking immigrants, population data is used to calculate distribution of money for federal programs.

California's postal abbreviation is CA and its FIPS state code is 06.

County	FIPS code ^[2]	County seat ^[3]	Established ^[3]	Created from parts of	Etymology ^[4]	Population (CDF 1-08) ^[5]	Population	Area ^[3]
Alameda County	001	Oakland	1853	Contra Costa and Santa Clara	Alameda is Spanish for an avenue shaded by trees or a cottonwood grove	1,543,000	1,474,368	&0000000000000738000000738 mi² (1,911 km²)
Alpine County	003	Markleeville	1864	Amador, El Dorado, Calaveras, Mono and Tuolumne	Named for its location high in the Sierra Nevada mountains	1,222	1,061	&0000000000000739000000739 sq mi (&00000000000019140000001,914 km²)
Amador County	005	Jackson	1854	Calaveras	Jose Maria Amador (1794-1883), a soldier, rancher and miner. In 1848, Amador, with several Native Americans, established a successful gold mining camp near the present town of Amador City. In Spanish, the word amador means "one who loves."	37,943	38,238	&0000000000000593000000593 sq mi (&00000000000015360000001,536 km²)
Butte County	007	Oroville	1850	Original	From the Sutter Buttes, which were erroneously believed to lie within the county's borders at the time of its creation.	220,407	220,337	&00000000000016400000001,640 sq mi (&00000000000042480000004,248 km²)
Calaveras County	009	San Andreas	1850	Original	From the Calaveras River which in turn is named for the spanish word for skulls	46,127	46,843	&00000000000010200000001,020 sq mi (&00000000000026420000002,642 km²)
Colusa County	011	Colusa	1850	Original	From two Mexican land grants; Coluses (1844) and Colus (1845)	21,910	21,204	&00000000000011510000001,151 sq mi (&00000000000029810000002,981 km²)
Contra Costa County	013	Martinez	1850	Original	Spanish for opposite coast, because Contra Costa County is across San Francisco Bay from San Francisco	1,051,674	1,029,703	&0000000000000720000000720 sq mi (&00000000000018650000001,865 km²)
Del Norte County	015	Crescent City	1857	Klamath	Spanish for Northern, because Del Norte County is the northwesternmost county in the state.	29,419	29,100	&00000000000010080000001,008 sq mi (&00000000000026110000002,611 km²)
El Dorado County	017	Placerville	1850	Original	From the mythical El Dorado, The Gilded One, in relation to El Dorado County's importance in the California Gold Rush.	179,722	176,075	&00000000000017120000001,712 sq mi (&00000000000044340000004,434 km²)
Fresno County	019	Fresno	1856	Mariposa, Merced and Tulare	From Fresno Creek. In Spanish, Fresno means "ash tree"	931,098	909,153	&00000000000059630000005,963 sq mi (&000000000001544400000015,444 km²)
Glenn County	021	Willows	1891	Colusa	Named for Dr. Hugh J. Glenn (1824-1883), a California businessman and politician.	29,195	28,237	&00000000000013150000001,315 sq mi (&00000000000034060000003,406 km²)
Humboldt County	023	Eureka	1853	Trinity	From Humboldt Bay, named after Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a German naturalist and explorer.	132,821	129,000	&00000000000035730000003,573 sq mi (&00000000000092540000009,254 km²)
Imperial County	025	El Centro	1907	San Diego ^[6]	From the Imperial Valley, which took its name from the Imperial Land Company.	176,158	163,972	&00000000000041750000004,175 sq mi (&000000000001081300000010,813 km²)
Inyo County	027	Independence	1866	Mono and Tulare	From a Native American word for dwelling place of the great spirit.	18,152	17,136	&000000000001019200000010,192 sq mi (&000000000002639700000026,397 km²)
Kern County	029	Bakersfield	1866	Los Angeles and Tulare	From the Kern River, named for Edward Kern (1822 - 1863), cartographer for General John C. Fremont's 1845 expedition.	817,517	800,458	&00000000000081420000008,142 sq mi (&000000000002108800000021,088 km²)
Kings County	031	Hanford	1893	Tulare	Kings River – Rio de los Santos Reyes (River of the Holy Kings) to honor the Biblical Magi	154,434	149,518	&00000000000013900000001,390 sq mi (&00000000000036000000003,600 km²)
Lake County	033	Lakeport	1861	Napa	From Clear Lake	64,059	64,866	&00000000000012580000001,258 sq mi (&00000000000032580000003,258 km²)
Lassen County	035	Susanville	1864	Plumas and Shasta, and now defunct Lake County, Nevada.	Peter Lassen (1800-1859), a Danish naturalist and explorer.	35,757	34,574	&00000000000045580000004,558 sq mi (&000000000001180500000011,805 km²)
Los Angeles County	037	Los Angeles	1850	Original	Spanish for the Angels, abbreviated from El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the river of Porziuncola).	10,363,850	9,862,049	&00000000000040600000004,060 sq mi (&000000000001051500000010,515 km²)
Madera County	039	Madera	1893	Fresno	Spanish for wood.	150,887	148,333	&00000000000021380000002,138 sq mi (&00000000000055370000005,537 km²)
Marin County	041	San Rafael	1850	Original	Disputed but may have been a corrupted term for Marina for its location on the San Francisco Bay.	257,406	248,794	&0000000000000520000000520 sq mi (&00000000000013470000001,347 km²)
Mariposa County	043	Mariposa	1850	Original^[7]	Spanish and Portuguese for butterfly.	18,406	17,976	&00000000000014510000001,451 sq mi (&00000000000037580000003,758 km²)
Mendocino County	045	Ukiah	1850	Original	Antonio de Mendoza (c. 1495 - 1552), viceroy of Spain.	90,163	86,221	&00000000000035090000003,509 sq mi (&00000000000090880000009,088 km²)
Merced County	047	Merced	1855	Mariposa	From the Merced River, or in Spanish El Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced (River of Our Lady of Mercy); named in 1806 by an expedition headed by Gabriel Moraga.	255,250	246,117	&00000000000019290000001,929 sq mi (&00000000000049960000004,996 km²)
Modoc County	049	Alturas	1874	Siskiyou	From the Native American Modoc people.	9,702	9,184	&00000000000039440000003,944 sq mi (&000000000001021500000010,215 km²)
Mono County	051	Bridgeport	1861	Calaveras, Fresno and Mariposa	For a local Native American tribe, the Mono Paiute people.	13,759	12,774	&00000000000030440000003,044 sq mi (&00000000000078840000007,884 km²)
Monterey County	053	Salinas	1850	Original	From Monterey Bay. The name itself is composed of the Spanish words monte (hill) and rey (king).	428,549	408,238	&00000000000033220000003,322 sq mi (&00000000000086040000008,604 km²)
Napa County	055	Napa	1850	Original	For a local Native American tribe, the Napans.	136,704	133,433	&0000000000000754000000754 sq mi (&00000000000019530000001,953 km²)
Nevada County	057	Nevada City	1851	Yuba	snowfall in Spanish.	99,186	97,118	&0000000000000958000000958 sq mi (&00000000000024810000002,481 km²)
Orange County	059	Santa Ana	1889	Los Angeles	From the citrus fruit widely grown in the region at the time the county was formed.	3,121,251	3,010,759	&0000000000000790000000790 sq mi (&00000000000020460000002,046 km²)
Placer County	061	Auburn	1851	Sutter and Yuba	Named for the small flakes of gold found in the area during Gold Rush.	333,401	341,945	&00000000000015030000001,503 sq mi (&00000000000038930000003,893 km²)
Plumas County	063	Quincy	1854	Butte	For the Feather River, "Plumas" meaning "feathers" in Spanish.	20,917	20,275	&00000000000025540000002,554 sq mi (&00000000000066150000006,615 km²)
Riverside County	065	Riverside	1893	San Bernardino and San Diego	From the city of Riverside being alongside the Santa Ana River and the boundary extends to the Colorado River.	2,088,322	2,100,516	&00000000000072080000007,208 sq mi (&000000000001866900000018,669 km²)
Sacramento County	067	Sacramento	1850	Original	From the Sacramento River, itself named for the Santisimo Sacramento (Spanish for Most Holy Sacrament) a reference to the Eucharist.	1,424,415	1,394,154	&0000000000000966000000966 sq mi (&00000000000025020000002,502 km²)
San Benito County	069	Hollister	1874	Monterey	in honor of San Benedicto (Saint Benedict), Benito is the diminutive of Benedicto.	57,784	54,699	&00000000000013890000001,389 sq mi (&00000000000035970000003,597 km²)
San Bernardino County	071	San Bernardino	1853	Los Angeles	Named for Saint Bernardino of Siena. The largest county in the continental U.S.	2,055,766	2,015,355	&000000000002006200000020,062 sq mi (&000000000005196000000051,960 km²)
San Diego County	073	San Diego	1850	Original	Named for San Diego Bay, itself named for Saint Didacus of Alcalá, or San Diego de Alcalá in Spanish.	3,146,274	3,001,072	&00000000000042040000004,204 sq mi (&000000000001088800000010,888 km²)
San Francisco County	075	San Francisco	1850	Original	Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), a Roman Catholic saint and founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans).	845,559	845,559	&000000000000004700000047 sq mi (&0000000000000122000000122 km²)
San Joaquin County	077	Stockton	1850	Original	Spanish for Saint Joachim.	685,660	672,388	&00000000000013990000001,399 sq mi (&00000000000036230000003,623 km²)
San Luis Obispo County	079	San Luis Obispo	1850	Original	Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop.	269,337	265,297	&00000000000033040000003,304 sq mi (&00000000000085570000008,557 km²)
San Mateo County	081	Redwood City	1856	San Francisco	Spanish for Saint Matthew	739,469	712,690	&0000000000000449000000449 sq mi (&00000000000011630000001,163 km²)
Santa Barbara County	083	Santa Barbara	1850	Original	Spanish for Saint Barbara.	428,655	405,396	&00000000000027380000002,738 sq mi (&00000000000070910000007,091 km²)
Santa Clara County	085	San Jose	1850	Original	Spanish for Saint Clare, for the Santa Clara Valley and the Mission town of Santa Clara.	1,837,075	1,764,499	&00000000000012910000001,291 sq mi (&00000000000033440000003,344 km²)
Santa Cruz County	087	Santa Cruz	1850	Original	Originally called Branciforte County, was named after the city of Santa Cruz, which, in turn, took its name from La Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz (Mission of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross), which was established on the site of the town in 1791.	266,519	253,137	&0000000000000446000000446 sq mi (&00000000000011550000001,155 km²)
Shasta County	089	Redding	1850	Original	After Mount Shasta despite the fact the volcanic peak isn't located in the county per se.	182,236	180,214	&00000000000037860000003,786 sq mi (&00000000000098060000009,806 km²)
Sierra County	091	Downieville	1852	Yuba	Mountain range in Spanish.	3,380	3,263	&0000000000000953000000953 sq mi (&00000000000024680000002,468 km²)
Siskiyou County	093	Yreka	1852	Shasta and Klamath	County named after Siskiyou Mountain Range; etymology of Siskiyou is disputed	45,971	44,542	&00000000000062870000006,287 sq mi (&000000000001628300000016,283 km²)
Solano County	095	Fairfield	1850	Original	From an Indian Chief, Chief Solano of the Suisunes, a Native American tribe of the region.	426,757	407,515	&0000000000000828000000828 sq mi (&00000000000021450000002,145 km²)
Sonoma County	097	Santa Rosa	1850	Original	After the village of Sonoma.	484,470	466,741	&00000000000015760000001,576 sq mi (&00000000000040820000004,082 km²)
Stanislaus County	099	Modesto	1854	Tuolumne	For the Stanislaus River, which was named for a Yokut Indian named Estanislao	525,903	510,694	&00000000000014950000001,495 sq mi (&00000000000038720000003,872 km²)
Sutter County	101	Yuba City	1850	Original	Named for Johann Augustus Sutter (a.k.a. John Sutter) (1803–1880), a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush. His ranch land was originally named Nueva Helvetia after his homeland of Switzerland in Latinized-Spanish.	95,878	92,207	&0000000000000603000000603 sq mi (&00000000000015620000001,562 km²)
Tehama County	103	Red Bluff	1856	Butte, Colusa and Shasta	For a local Native American tribe, the Tehama.	62,419	61,550	&00000000000029510000002,951 sq mi (&00000000000076430000007,643 km²)
Trinity County	105	Weaverville	1850	Original	From the Trinity River which in turn was named after the coastal town of Trinidad, California	13,966	14,317	&00000000000031790000003,179 sq mi (&00000000000082340000008,234 km²)
Tulare County	107	Visalia	1852	Mariposa	For a dry lake, Tulare Lake on the western end of the	435,254	426,276	&00000000000048240000004,824 sq mi (&000000000001249400000012,494 km²)
Tuolumne County	109	Sonora	1850	Original	The name for the Tuolumne River (twah'-luh-me) has as many possible meanings as it does spellings. The original meaning of the word "Tuolumne" may have been "cave people" or "stone wigwams," both taken from the history of tribes known as "Taulamnell," or "Tahualamne," or Yokuts Indians living near Knights Ferry in the rocks and recesses by the river. Another theory is that "Tuolumne" is derived from a Central Sierra Miwok word "talmalmne" whose meaning is unclear today.	56,799	55,644	&00000000000022360000002,236 sq mi (&00000000000057910000005,791 km²)
Ventura County	111	Ventura	1872	Santa Barbara	Abbreviation of San Buenaventura, Spanish for St. Bonaventure.	831,587	797,740	&00000000000018460000001,846 sq mi (&00000000000047810000004,781 km²)
Yolo County	113	Woodland	1850	Original	For a local Native American tribe, the Yolans.	199,066	197,658	&00000000000010120000001,012 sq mi (&00000000000026210000002,621 km²)
Yuba County	115	Marysville	1850	Original	For the Yuba family, who owned ranchos in the Sacramento River Valley.	71,929	73,067	&0000000000000630000000630 sq mi (&00000000000016320000001,632 km²)

Defunct counties

Klamath County was created in 1851 from the northern half of Trinity County. Part of the county's territory went to Del Norte County in 1857, and in 1874 the remainder was divided between Humboldt and Siskiyou counties.
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.

Notes

↑ Reynolds, 48-49.
↑ "EPA County FIPS Code Listing". EPA.gov. http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/codes/ca.html. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 National Association of Counties. "NACo - Find a county". http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=/cffiles/counties/state.cfm&state.cfm&statecode=CA. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
↑ Sanchez, Nellie Van de Grift (1914). Spanish and Indian Place Names of California: Their Meaning and Their Romance. San Francisco: A.M. Robertson. OCLC 4268886. http://books.google.com/books?id=gKgYAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage.
↑ California Department of Finance. "2008 Population Estimate". http://www.dof.ca.gov/research/demographic/reports/estimates/e-1_2006-07/documents/E-1table.xls. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
↑ The most recent county formed.
↑ Mariposa County was the largest of the state's original counties, but territory that was once Mariposa is now 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
California County Formation Maps; familyhistory101.com Shows the changing boundaries of the Counties from 1850 to 1925.

List of U.S. counties & county-equivalents
by political division (state / capital federal district)

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State of California

Sacramento (capital)

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Metro areas	Bakersfield · Chico · El Centro · Fresno · Hanford–Corcoran · Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale · Madera · Modesto · Merced · Napa · Oakland–Fremont–Hayward · Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura · Redding · Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario · Sacramento–Arden Arcade–Roseville · Salinas · San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos · San Francisco–San Mateo–Redwood City · San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara · San Luis Obispo–Paso Robles · Santa Ana–Anaheim–Irvine · Santa Barbara–Santa Maria–Goleta · Santa Cruz–Watsonville· Santa Rosa–Petaluma · Stockton · Vallejo–Fairfield · Visalia–Porterville · Yuba City

Micro areas	Bishop · Clearlake · Crescent City · Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna · Phoenix Lake-Cedar Ridge · Red Bluff · Susanville · Truckee–Grass Valley · Ukiah

Counties	Alameda · Alpine · Amador · Butte · Calaveras · Colusa · Contra Costa · Del Norte · El Dorado · Fresno · Glenn · Humboldt · Imperial · Inyo · Kern · Kings · Lake · Lassen · Los Angeles · Madera · Marin · Mariposa · Mendocino · Merced · Modoc · Mono · Monterey · Napa · Nevada · Orange · Placer · Plumas · Riverside · Sacramento · San Benito · San Bernardino · San Diego · San Francisco · San Joaquin · San Luis Obispo · San Mateo · Santa Barbara · Santa Clara · Santa Cruz · Shasta · Sierra · Siskiyou · Solano · Sonoma · Stanislaus · Sutter · Tehama · Trinity · Tulare · Tuolumne · Ventura · Yolo · Yuba