County Seat

A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China and Taiwan. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function.

In the United States, counties are the political subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide certain services to the public, impose taxes, and administer and enforce selected state laws and regulations as well as a court system (or provide regional boundaries for a state court system). In many states, certain government functions and services (as well as taxing authority) are further decentralized below the county level by dividing counties into incorporated municipalities such as cities and towns and/or unincorporated areas. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be either incorporated or unincorporated (or both), depending on the state. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county. Generally, the county legislature, county courthouse, sheriff's department headquarters, hall of records and jail and/or correctional facility are located in the county seat, though some functions may also be located or conducted in other parts of the county, especially if it is geographically large.

A county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, and Howard County, Maryland. (Ellicott City, the county seat of Howard County, is the largest unincorporated county seat in the United States, followed by Towson, the county seat of Baltimore County, Maryland.) Likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, an incorporated municipality. In some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included "Court House" as part of their name, (e.g. Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia).

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