The term county, which derives from the Latin comitātus, has several uses. The first meaning mentioned by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in its dictionary refers to the dignity of a count and the territory over which this nobleman, in ancient times, exercised dominion.
Currently, the most common use of county refers to an administrative entity existing in several countries, usually Anglo-Saxon. The concept, which is called shire or county in the English language, is equivalent to department, province or municipality, depending on the nation.
In the United States there are more than 3,000 counties, which are distributed in 48 of the 50 states. There are only no counties in Alaska (which calls for the boroughs) and Louisiana (where the territory is divided into parishs).
According to abbreviationfinder.org, another series of interesting facts about the counties in the United States are the following:
– An average of 62 counties per state is established.
-The first colony to establish counties was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1643.
-The state with the most counties is Texas, which has 254, and the one with the least is Delaware, with only 3.
-In many states, these In turn, civil municipalities are divided.
-The government of each county must establish that it has different types of powers. Specifically, they are classified as minimum, medium and broad.
An example of a US county is San Bernardino County, which belongs to the state of California. It was created in 1853 and, with an area of more than 52,000 square kilometers, it is the largest county in the United States.
Croatia also has counties. Since the sanction of the Constitution in 1990, this European country has divided its territory into 21 counties. The most populous is the county of Split-Damacia, with more than 460,000 inhabitants, while the one with the largest territorial extension is the county of Lika-Senj (more than 5,350 square kilometers).
In Spain, for their part, counties are linked to noble titles, but they do not have an administrative function. The County Altamira, the county of Bilbao and the county of Santa Teresa are some of them.
In addition to all the above, we must not overlook the fact that in the Andalusian province of Huelva there is El Condado. It is a region of the aforementioned province that has a total of fourteen municipalities and has a total area of 2,457 square kilometers. Specifically, among the most important are Almonte, Trigueros, Bonares, La Palma del Condado and Bollulos Par de El Condado. Its main economic activity is the production of wines.
Its origin is in the old County of Niebla, which belongs to the Casa de Medina Sidonia family and which is a noble title that was created in the 14th century. Specifically, it was the then King Enrique II who in 1368 gave it to Juan Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Osorio for his loyalty during what was the development of the so-called First Spanish Civil War.
