List of counties in New Hampshire

Counties of New Hampshire
Category Federal Unit
Location State of New Hampshire
Number 10
Populations 33,055 (Coos) – 400,721 (Hillsborough)
Areas 369 square miles (960 km2) (Strafford) – 1,801 square miles (4,660 km2) (Coos)
Government County government
Subdivisions cities, towns, townships, villages, unincorporated territories, census designated place

This is a list of counties in New Hampshire.

There are ten counties in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Five of the counties were created in 1769, when New Hampshire was still an English colony and not a state, during the first subdivision of the state into counties. The last counties created were Belknap County and Carroll County, in 1840.

The majority of New Hampshire's counties were named for prominent British or American people or geographic locations and features. Only one county's name originates in a Native American language: Coös County, named for an Algonquian word meaning "small pines".

The counties tend to be smaller in land area towards the southern end of the state, where New Hampshire population is concentrated, and larger in land area in the less populous north.[1][2]

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 Belknap County, New Hampshire is 001, Addison County, Vermont and Alachua County, Florida are also 001. To uniquely identify Belknap County, New Hampshire, one must use the state code of 33 plus the county code of 001; therefore, the unique nationwide identifier for Belknap County, New Hampshire is 33001. The links in the column FIPS County Code are to the Census Bureau Info page for that county.[3]

List

County FIPS Code
[3]		 County Seat
[4]		 Created
[4]		 Formed from
[5]		 Etymology
[2]		 Population
[6]		 Area
[4][6]		 Map
Belknap County 001 Laconia 1840 Parts of Merrimack County and Strafford County. Jeremy Belknap (1744-1798), early New Hampshire historian. 60,088 401 sq mi
(1,039 km2) 		State map highlighting Belknap County
Carroll County 003 Ossipee 1840 Part of Strafford County. Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), the last surviving signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence. 47,818 934 sq mi
(2,419 km2) 		State map highlighting Carroll County
Cheshire County 005 Keene 1769 One of five original counties. English county of Cheshire. 77,117 708 sq mi
(1,834 km2) 		State map highlighting Cheshire County
Coos County 007 Lancaster 1803 Part of Grafton County. An Algonquian word meaning "small pines". 33,055 1,801 sq mi
(4,665 km2) 		State map highlighting Coos County
Grafton County 009 North Haverhill 1769 One of five original counties. Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (1735-1811), a Prime Minister of Great Britain (1768-1770). 89,118 1,714 sq mi
(4,439 km2) 		State map highlighting Grafton County
Hillsborough County 011 Manchester
and
Nashua 		1769 One of five original counties. Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire (1718-1793), known in America as the Earl of Hillsborough, who served as the first Secretary of State for the Colonies. 400,721 876 sq mi
(2,269 km2) 		State map highlighting Hillsborough County
Merrimack County 013 Concord 1823 Parts of Hillsborough County and Rockingham County. The Merrimack River. 146,445 934 sq mi
(2,419 km2) 		State map highlighting Merrimack County
Rockingham County 015 Brentwood 1769 One of five original counties. Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730-1782), a two-time Prime Minister of Great Britain (1765-1766, 1782). 295,223 695 sq mi
(1,800 km2) 		State map highlighting Rockingham County
Strafford County 017 Dover 1769 One of five original counties. William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1626-1695), an English noble who owned colonial lands. 123,143 369 sq mi
(956 km2) 		State map highlighting Strafford County
Sullivan County 019 Newport 1827 Part of Cheshire County. John Sullivan (1740-1795), the third and fifth governor of New Hampshire (1786-1788, 1789-1790). 43,742 537 sq mi
(1,391 km2) 		State map highlighting Sullivan County

References

  1. ↑ Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn (1916). History of New Hampshire. The American Historical Society.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "New Hampshire Counties". New Hampshire Almanac. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "EPA County FIPS Code Listing". US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "NACo - Find a county". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  5. ↑ "New Hampshire Counties". The NHGenWeb Project. Archived from the original on 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "New Hampshire QuickFacts". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2007-07-24. (2000 Census)