List of counties in California

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MNO

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TUO

MPA

MAD

MER

SCL

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SM

SF→

ALA

CC

SJ

STA

CAL

AMA

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SAC

SOL

YOL

NAP

MRN

SON

MEN

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PLA

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See also: List of United States counties and county-equivalents

The 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 law enforcement (through the county sheriff and sheriff's deputies) to areas that are not 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.
• 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.
• One consolidated city–county is located in the state, 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.
• Historically, counties were responsible for providing courthouses and courthouse security for the Superior Courts of California (there is one superior court for each county), even though the superior courts were actually divisions of the state government, not the county governments. This unfunded mandate was a perennial source of frustration for both the superior courts and the counties. The Legislature finally responded by enacting the Trial Court Funding Act of 1997 and then the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002 to transfer all courthouses to the state government and to relieve the counties of the burden of providing facilities to state courts. However, because the state government was not prepared to assume the burden of developing its own statewide courthouse security force, the superior courts were allowed to establish agreements with county sheriffs by which the courts would reimburse counties for continuing to provide deputy sheriffs to serve as bailiffs in the courthouses.

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 county in California to be established is Imperial County on August 7, 1907.

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

List

County	FIPS code	County seat	Established	Formed from	Etymology	Population	Area	Map
Alameda County	001	Oakland	1853	Contra Costa and Santa Clara	Spanish for "avenue shaded by trees" or "cottonwood grove."	1,510,271	738 sq mi (1,911 km2)
Alpine County	003	Markleeville	1864	Amador, El Dorado, Calaveras, Mono and Tuolumne	Location high in the Sierra Nevada.	1,175	739 sq mi (1,914 km2)
Amador County	005	Jackson	1854	Calaveras	Jose Maria Amador (1794–1883), a soldier, rancher, and miner who, along with several Native Americans, established a successful gold mining camp near present-day Amador City in 1848.	38,091	593 sq mi (1,536 km2)
Butte County	007	Oroville	1850	Original	Sutter Buttes, which was mistakenly thought to be in the county during the county's establishment.	220,000	1,640 sq mi (4,248 km2)
Calaveras County	009	San Andreas	1850	Original	Calaveras River; Calaveras itself is the Spanish for "skulls".	45,578	1,020 sq mi (2,642 km2)
Colusa County	011	Colusa	1850	Original	Rancho Colus land grant from Mexico.	21,419	1,151 sq mi (2,981 km2)
Contra Costa County	013	Martinez	1850	Original	Spanish for "opposite coast", from its location across San Francisco Bay from San Francisco.	1,049,025	720 sq mi (1,865 km2)
Del Norte County	015	Crescent City	1857	Klamath	Spanish for "northern", from its far northern location.	28,610	1,008 sq mi (2,611 km2)
El Dorado County	017	Placerville	1850	Original	El Dorado, a mythical city of gold, owing to the area's significance in the California Gold Rush.	181,058	1,712 sq mi (4,434 km2)
Fresno County	019	Fresno	1856	Mariposa, Merced and Tulare	The city of Fresno, itself Spanish for "ash tree."	930,450	5,963 sq mi (15,444 km2)
Glenn County	021	Willows	1891	Colusa	Dr. Hugh J. Glenn, a California businessman and politician.	28,122	1,315 sq mi (3,406 km2)
Humboldt County	023	Eureka	1853	Trinity	Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist and explorer.	134,623	3,573 sq mi (9,254 km2)
Imperial County	025	El Centro	1907	San Diego	Imperial Valley, named after the Imperial Land Company.	174,528	4,175 sq mi (10,813 km2)
Inyo County	027	Independence	1866	Mono and Tulare	exact etymology disputed; early settlers believed Inyo to be the native name for area mountains, but this term may be the name of a Mono Indian leader	18,546	10,192 sq mi (26,397 km2)
Kern County	029	Bakersfield	1866	Los Angeles and Tulare	Edward Kern, cartographer for John C. Fremont's 1845 expedition.	839,631	8,142 sq mi (21,088 km2)
Kings County	031	Hanford	1893	Tulare	Kings River, original Spanish name Rio de los Santos Reyes ("River of the Holy Kings").	152,982	1,390 sq mi (3,600 km2)
Lake County	033	Lakeport	1861	Napa	Clear Lake	64,665	1,258 sq mi (3,258 km2)
Lassen County	035	Susanville	1864	Plumas and Shasta, and now defunct Lake County, Nevada	Peter Lassen, a Danish naturalist and explorer.	34,895	4,558 sq mi (11,805 km2)
Los Angeles County	037	Los Angeles	1850	Original	The city of Los Angeles, itself 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).	9,818,605	4,060 sq mi (10,515 km2)
Madera County	039	Madera	1893	Mariposa	The city of Madera, itself Spanish for "wood", in reference to the forested area of the landscape	150,865	2,138 sq mi (5,537 km2)
Marin County	041	San Rafael	1850	Original	Exact etymology disputed; probably a corrupted abbreviation of Bahía de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marina, the Spanish name for area headlands along San Francisco Bay.	252,409	520 sq mi (1,347 km2)
Mariposa County	043	Mariposa	1850	Original	The city of Mariposa, itself Spanish for "butterfly".	18,251	1,451 sq mi (3,758 km2)
Mendocino County	045	Ukiah	1850	Original	Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain.	87,841	3,509 sq mi (9,088 km2)
Merced County	047	Merced	1855	Mariposa	The city of Merced, itself derived from the original Spanish name El Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced ("River of Our Lady of Mercy").	255,793	1,929 sq mi (4,996 km2)
Modoc County	049	Alturas	1874	Siskiyou	The Modoc people	9,686	3,944 sq mi (10,215 km2)
Mono County	051	Bridgeport	1861	Calaveras, Fresno and Mariposa	Mono Lake; name derived from Monachi, a Yokut name for native peoples of the Sierra Nevada.	14,202	3,044 sq mi (7,884 km2)
Monterey County	053	Salinas	1850	Original	Monterey Bay, itself a Spanish portmanteau of monte ("hill") and rey ("king").	415,057	3,322 sq mi (8,604 km2)
Napa County	055	Napa	1850	Original	Disputed origin; possibly derived from the Patwin word napo, meaning home.	136,484	754 sq mi (1,953 km2)
Nevada County	057	Nevada City	1851	Yuba	The bordering state of Nevada, itself Spanish for "snow-covered", referencing the area's high elevation	98,764	958 sq mi (2,481 km2)
Orange County	059	Santa Ana	1889	Los Angeles	The orange, which was widely abundant in the area at the time the county was established.	3,010,232	790 sq mi (2,046 km2)
Placer County	061	Auburn	1851	Sutter and Yuba	Spanish term for gravel deposits containing gold, a reference the California Gold Rush, which was centered in the area.	348,432	1,503 sq mi (3,893 km2)
Plumas County	063	Quincy	1854	Butte	Spanish for feathers.	20,007	2,554 sq mi (6,615 km2)
Riverside County	065	Riverside	1893	San Bernardino and San Diego	The city of Riverside, named in turn because of its location on the Santa Ana River.	2,189,641	7,208 sq mi (18,669 km2)
Sacramento County	067	Sacramento	1850	Original	The city of Sacramento, named in turn after the Santisimo Sacramento (Spanish for "Most Holy Sacrament").	1,418,788	966 sq mi (2,502 km2)
San Benito County	069	Hollister	1874	Monterey	Saint Benedict (San Benedicto in Spanish; Benito is the diminutive of Benedicto).	55,269	1,389 sq mi (3,597 km2)
San Bernardino County	071	San Bernardino	1853	Los Angeles	The city of San Bernardino, named in turn after Saint Bernardino of Siena (San Bernardino de Siena in Spanish)	2,035,210	20,062 sq mi (51,960 km2)
San Diego County	073	San Diego	1850	Original	The city of San Diego, itself Spanish for Saint Didacus	3,095,313	4,204 sq mi (10,888 km2)
San Francisco County	075	San Francisco	1850	Original	The city of San Francisco, itself Spanish for Saint Francis.	805,235	47 sq mi (122 km2)
San Joaquin County	077	Stockton	1850	Original	Spanish for Saint Joachim.	685,306	1,399 sq mi (3,623 km2)
San Luis Obispo County	079	San Luis Obispo	1850	Original	The city of San Luis Obispo, itself Spanish for Saint Louis, the Bishop.	269,637	3,304 sq mi (8,557 km2)
San Mateo County	081	Redwood City	1856	San Francisco and Santa Cruz	Spanish for Saint Matthew.	718,451	449 sq mi (1,163 km2)
Santa Barbara County	083	Santa Barbara	1850	Original	The city of Santa Barbara, itself Spanish for Saint Barbara.	423,895	2,738 sq mi (7,091 km2)
Santa Clara County	085	San Jose	1850	Original	Mission Santa Clara de Asís, itself Spanish for Saint Clare of Assisi.	1,781,642	1,291 sq mi (3,344 km2)
Santa Cruz County	087	Santa Cruz	1850	Original	The city of Santa Cruz, itself Spanish for holy cross	262,382	446 sq mi (1,155 km2)
Shasta County	089	Redding	1850	Original	Mount Shasta	177,223	3,786 sq mi (9,806 km2)
Sierra County	091	Downieville	1852	Yuba	Spanish for "mountain range", a reference to the area's topography	3,240	953 sq mi (2,468 km2)
Siskiyou County	093	Yreka	1852	Shasta and Klamath	Siskiyou Mountains; exact etymology of Siskiyou is disputed.	44,900	6,287 sq mi (16,283 km2)
Solano County	095	Fairfield	1850	Original	Chief Solano of the Suisunes	413,344	828 sq mi (2,145 km2)
Sonoma County	097	Santa Rosa	1850	Original	Exact etymology disputed; probably a Pomo term meaning "valley of the moon", which references a native legend about spiritual activity in the area.	483,878	1,576 sq mi (4,082 km2)
Stanislaus County	099	Modesto	1854	Tuolumne	Stanislaus River, named after Estanislao.	514,453	1,495 sq mi (3,872 km2)
Sutter County	101	Yuba City	1850	Original	John Sutter, a Swiss pioneer of California associated with the California Gold Rush.	94,737	603 sq mi (1,562 km2)
Tehama County	103	Red Bluff	1856	Butte, Colusa and Shasta	The city of Tehama, named after the Tehama people, a local Native American tribe.	63,463	2,951 sq mi (7,643 km2)
Trinity County	105	Weaverville	1850	Original	The city of Trinidad, itself Spanish for "Trinity".	13,786	3,179 sq mi (8,234 km2)
Tulare County	107	Visalia	1852	Mariposa	Tulare Lake, which is named after the tule rush (Schoenoplectus acutus) that lined the marshes and sloughs of its shores.	442,179	4,824 sq mi (12,494 km2)
Tuolumne County	109	Sonora	1850	Original	Exact etymology disputed; probably a corruption of the native term talmalamne, which means cluster of stone wigwams, a reference to local cave dwelling tribes.	55,365	2,236 sq mi (5,791 km2)
Ventura County	111	Ventura	1872	Santa Barbara	The city of Ventura, itself an abbreviation of San Buenaventura, Spanish for St. Bonaventure.	823,318	1,846 sq mi (4,781 km2)
Yolo County	113	Woodland	1850	Original	The Yolan people, a local Native American tribe.	200,849	1,012 sq mi (2,621 km2)
Yuba County	115	Marysville	1850	Original	Either named by the Maidu people, a local Native American tribe who live on the banks of the Feather & Yuba Rivers, or by Gabriel Moraga, who used the Spanish name for the wild grapes (Vitis californica) that grow abundantly at the edge of the rivers.	72,155	630 sq mi (1,632 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.

See also

• Lists of school districts in California by county
• California State Association of Counties

External links

• California State Association of Counties
• State map showing the county names and linking to county data
• California County Formation Maps. Shows the changing boundaries of the Counties from 1850 to 1925.
• California State Association of Counties, Map of California Counties: circa 1850
• California State Association of Counties, Map of California Counties: circa 1860
• California State Association of Counties, Map of California Counties: circa 1870
• California State Association of Counties, Map of California Counties: circa 1880
• California State Association of Counties, Map of California Counties: circa 1900
• California State Association of Counties, Map of California Counties: circa 1907-Present