This article lists the 3,243 counties and county equivalents of the United States. The 50 states of the United States are divided into 3,007 counties, political and geographic subdivisions of a state; 236 other local governments and geographic places are also first-order administrative divisions of their respective state/district/territory, but are called by different names. The latter are referred to collectively as county equivalents by the United States Census Bureau. The 236 county equivalents include 100 equivalents in the territories (such as those in Puerto Rico) outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The large majority of counties and equivalents were organized by 1970. Since that time, most creations, boundary changes and dissolutions have occurred in Alaska and Virgi