US Counties
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50 free US Counties trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Counties are the layer of American government most people deal with and few think about. They run courthouses, jails, elections and road crews, and their borders and names carry centuries of history: colonial charters, frontier land rushes, railroad barons and the occasional feud between a city and its neighbors. This quiz covers the records (largest, smallest, most crowded, emptiest), the states that use a different word for a county or have scrapped county government altogether, the cities that belong to no county at all, and the counties behind famous places, from theme parks and space launches to gunfights and rock festivals. A few counties that made it into novels, films and political slang turn up too. It suits geography buffs, road trippers, civics students and anyone who has ever wondered whose name is on the courthouse. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish knowing more than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which state is carved into 254 counties, far more than any other American state?
Texas
Texas counties range from Rockwall, at 149 square miles, to Brewster, more than 40 times larger at 6,192.
Q 02Which state calls its counties parishes, a term dating back to French and Spanish colonial rule?
Louisiana
Louisiana has 64 parishes, and 38 of them are still governed by a council with the unusual name of police jury.
Q 03Which county name covers both Disneyland in California and most of Walt Disney World in Florida?
Orange
Orange County in California got Disneyland in 1955, and its Florida namesake followed with Walt Disney World in 1971. A corner of the Florida resort spills into Osceola County.
Q 04Which state is divided into boroughs instead of counties, plus one vast Unorganized Borough?
Alaska
Alaska's Unorganized Borough takes in nearly half the state yet has no county-style government of its own, so the state runs most of it directly.
Q 05Which island forms New York County, the most densely populated county in the United States?
Manhattan
Manhattan squeezes about 1.7 million residents into less than 23 square miles, which also makes New York County the smallest county by area in its state.
Q 06Which Founding Father is honored by the most common county name, used by 30 counties and one parish?
George Washington
George Washington leads the list with 31 namesakes, ahead of Thomas Jefferson with 26. Franklin, with 25, is the most common county name honoring someone who was never president.
Q 07Which Florida city merged with Duval County in 1968 to become the largest by area in the lower 48?
Jacksonville
Jacksonville spans about 874 square miles after the merger and completely surrounds the separate town of Baldwin.
Q 08Which state has the fewest counties, just three named New Castle, Kent and Sussex?
Delaware
Delaware once split its counties into districts called hundreds, which survive today only in real-estate title descriptions.
Q 09Which Nevada county governs the Las Vegas Strip, which lies just outside the Las Vegas city limits?
Clark
Clark County has direct jurisdiction because the Strip's casinos stand in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. Its namesake was a Montana copper magnate.
Q 10Which Illinois county, home to Chicago, holds more than 40 percent of the state's residents?
Cook
Cook County counted more than 5.2 million residents at the 2020 census, when only one other American county had more.
Q 11Which elected county officer's title comes from the Old English for the royal official who ran a county?
Sheriff
Sheriff once meant the reeve who ran an English shire for the crown. More than 95 percent of American holders of the office are still chosen by county voters.
Q 12Which California county, larger than Switzerland, is the largest by area in the lower 48 states?
San Bernardino
San Bernardino County covers more than 20,000 square miles, reaching all the way to the Nevada border and the Colorado River.
Q 13Which state abolished county government in 1960, leaving eight counties that exist in name only?
Connecticut
Connecticut runs local government solely through its towns and cities, and in 2022 the Census Bureau agreed to count nine planning regions there instead of the old counties.
Q 21Which county, named for a cattle driver, is the least populous in America, with only 64 residents in 2020?
Loving
Loving County has a single community, Mentone, and its namesake Oliver Loving helped blaze a famous cattle trail through the area in 1866.
Q 22Which Hawaii county on Molokai served as a place of exile for leprosy patients from 1866 to 1969?
Kalawao
Kalawao County has no local government of its own: the state health director doubles as its mayor, and the only land route in is a mule trail down sea cliffs.
Q 23Which Missouri city voted in 1876 to secede from its surrounding county and become an independent city?
St. Louis
St. Louis made the split official in March 1877 after a recount, yet it still shares a zoo and museum tax district with the county it left.
Q 14Which Pennsylvania county is known for Amish farms and villages named Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand?
Lancaster
Lancaster County's Amish trace back to settlers who began arriving in the early 18th century, drawn by the religious freedom William Penn offered.
Q 15Which county containing Seattle kept its name but officially changed the person it honors?
King
King County first honored William R. King, the vice president-elect of 1852, then switched to Martin Luther King Jr. without changing a letter.
Q 16Which county's covered bridges inspired a romance novel that sold 50 million copies and became a 1995 film?
Madison
Madison County still has six covered bridges, and the novel set among them spent more than three years on the New York Times bestseller list.
Q 17Which state contains 38 of the 41 American cities that legally belong to no county?
Virginia
Virginia has treated every incorporated city as independent of the county around it since a revised state constitution took effect in 1871.
Q 18Which Arizona county, home to Phoenix, contains about 62 percent of the state's entire population?
Maricopa
Maricopa County's dominance makes Arizona one of the most centralized states; the county counted more than 4.4 million residents at the 2020 census.
Q 19Which California county, centered on San Jose, is home to Apple, Google and most of Silicon Valley?
Santa Clara
Santa Clara County's valley was the world's largest fruit-growing and packing region through the 1960s, before chip makers replaced its orchards.
Q 20Which county, home to Houston, has more residents than any other county in Texas?
Harris
Harris County is named for John Richardson Harris, who founded the town of Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou in 1826.
Q 24Which Maryland city, independent of any county since 1851, is the most populous independent city in America?
Baltimore
Baltimore was the seat of the county that shares its name before the 1851 split, and that county still wraps around the city on three sides.
Q 25Which California city has been a combined city and county since 1856, when San Mateo County split away?
San Francisco
San Francisco's mayor doubles as county executive, and the city owns and runs an airport that actually sits in San Mateo County.
Q 26Which Ohio county, home to Cleveland, shares its name with a river that caught fire in 1969?
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga River fires broke out at least 14 times, and news coverage of the 1969 blaze helped spur the American environmental movement.
Q 27Which Southern state has 159 counties, a total capped by a 1945 amendment to its constitution?
Georgia
Georgia drew its counties small, by one traditional reasoning, so a farmer could ride to the county seat and back home in a single day.
Q 28Which state's 99 counties are all visited by candidates completing a tour nicknamed the full Grassley?
Iowa
Iowa senator Chuck Grassley inspired the term by holding public meetings in all 99 counties every year after taking office in 1981.
Q 29Which Massachusetts island south of Cape Cod is run as a single combined town and county government?
Nantucket
Nantucket was officially part of New York until 1691, when the charter for the new Province of Massachusetts Bay was signed.
Q 30Which Tennessee county is home to the Jack Daniel's distillery yet has stayed a dry county for a century?
Moore
Moore County's dry status dates to state prohibition laws of the early 20th century, even though whiskey making there began in the 1820s.