List of counties in Connecticut

Counties of Connecticut
Location	State of Connecticut
Number	8
Populations	118,428 (Windham) – 916,829 (Fairfield)
Areas	369 square miles (960 km^2) (Middlesex) – 920 square miles (2,400 km^2) (Litchfield)
Government	County government (abolished in 1960)
Subdivisions	cities, towns, unincorporated communities, census designated place

This is a list of counties in Connecticut. There are currently eight counties in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Four of them were created in 1666, shortly after the Connecticut Colony and the New Haven Colony combined. Two additional counties were created later in the colonial era, and two more counties, Middlesex and Tolland, were created after American independence (both in 1785). Six of the counties are named for locations in England, where many early Connecticut settlers originated.^[1]

Although Connecticut is divided into counties, there is no county government in Connecticut and local government consists of cities and towns.^[2][3] County government was abolished in Connecticut in 1960, although the names remain for geographical purposes. Counties are, however, still used by the state to organize its judicial and state marshal system. Connecticut's court jurisdictions still adhere to the county boundaries, except for Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven, which have been further subdivided into several jurisdictions.

The FIPS county code is the five-digit Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code which uniquely identifies counties and county equivalents in the United States. The three-digit number is unique to each individual county within a state, but to be unique within the entire United States, it must be prefixed by the state code. This means that, for example, while Fairfield County, Connecticut is 001, Belknap County, New Hampshire and Alachua County, Florida are also 001. To uniquely identify Fairfield County, Connecticut, one must use the state code of 09 plus the county code of 001; therefore, the unique nationwide identifier for Fairfield County, Connecticut is 09001. The links in the column FIPS County Code are to the Census Bureau Info page for that county.^[4]

Alphabetical listing

County	INCITS [4]	County seat (defunct) [5]	Established [5]	Origin [1]	Etymology [6]	Population [5][7]	Area [5]	Map
Fairfield County	001	Fairfield (1666–1853) Bridgeport (1853–1960)	1666	One of four original counties created in Connecticut	From the hundreds of acres of salt marsh that bordered the coast.	916,829	626 sq mi (1,621 km^2)
Hartford County	003	Hartford (1666–1960)	1666	One of four original counties created in Connecticut	After the county of Hertfordshire in the UK	894,014	736 sq mi (1,906 km^2)
Litchfield County	005	Litchfield (1751–1960)	1751	From parts of Fairfield County, Hartford County, and New Haven County	City of Lichfield in the UK	189,927	920 sq mi (2,383 km^2)
Middlesex County	007	Middletown (1785–1960)	1785	From parts of Hartford County and New London County	Former county of Middlesex in the UK	165,676	369 sq mi (956 km^2)
New Haven County	009	New Haven (1666–1960)	1666	One of four original counties created in Connecticut	After New Haven Colony, founded as a haven in which Puritans could be free from persecution.	862,477	606 sq mi (1,570 km^2)
New London County	011	New London (1666–1960)	1666	One of four original counties created in Connecticut	After London, UK	274,055	666 sq mi (1,725 km^2)
Tolland County	013	Tolland (1785–1889) Rockville (1889–1960)	1785	From parts of Hartford County, and Windham County	Hamlet of Tolland, Somerset, UK	152,691	410 sq mi (1,062 km^2)
Windham County	015	Windham (1726–1819) Brooklyn (1819–1895) Willimantic and Putnam (1895–1960)	1726	From parts of Hartford County, and New London County	After Windham (now Wineham) in Sussex, England	118,428	513 sq mi (1,329 km^2)

Former counties

• Trumbull County, Ohio – The Connecticut Western Reserve, ceded to Ohio in 1800.
• Westmoreland County, Connecticut – An area around Wilkes-Barre, ceded to Pennsylvania in 1784.

References

1. Clark, George Larkin (1914). A History of Connecticut, Its People and Institutions. G.P. Putnam & Sons.
2. "About Connecticut". CT.gov. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
3. An Overview of County Government, National Association of Counties website, accessed 5 January 2008
4. "EPA County FIPS Code Listing". EPA.gov. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
5. National Association of Counties. "NACo – Find a county". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
6. Beatty, Michael (2001). County Name Origins of the United States. McFarland Press. ISBN 0-7864-1025-6.
7. "Connecticut QuickFacts". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2007-07-17.