List of counties in Vermont

Counties of Vermont
Franklin GI Orleans Lamoille Caledonia Essex Washington Chittenden Addison Orange Rutland Windsor Bennington Windham
Location	State of Vermont
Number	14
Populations	6,010 (Essex) – 169,481 (Chittenden)
Areas	83 square miles (210 km2) (Grand Isle) – 971 square miles (2,510 km2) (Windsor)
Government	County government
Subdivisions	Cities, towns, villages, unincorporated communities

There are fourteen counties in the U.S. state of Vermont. These counties together contain 255 political units, or places, including 237 towns, 10 cities, 5 unincorporated areas, and 4 gores. Each county has a county seat, often referred to as a "shire town."

In 1779, Vermont had two counties. The western side of the state was Bennington County and the eastern was Cumberland County. ^[1] In 1781, three new counties (including then-called Washington that became part of New Hampshire) were created out of Cumberland County, and the remainder of the county was renamed Windham. Today's Washington County was created in 1810 as Jefferson County; it was renamed Washington in 1814.

Essex County, Orleans County, and Caledonia County are commonly referred to as the Northeast Kingdom .

The FIPS county code is the five-digit Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code which uniquely identifies counties and county equivalents in the United States. The three-digit number is unique to each individual county within a state, but to be unique within the entire United States, it must be prefixed by the state code. This means that, for example, while Addison County, Vermont is 001, Belknap County, New Hampshire and Alachua County, Florida are also 001. To uniquely identify Addison County, Vermont, one must use the state code of 50 plus the county code of 001; therefore, the unique nationwide identifier for Addison County, Vermont is 50001. The links in the column FIPS County Code are to the Census Bureau Info page for that county. ^[2]

List

County	FIPS code [2]	Shire town [3]	Est. [3] [4]	Origin [5]	Etymology [5]	Population [6]	Area [3] [7]	Map
AddisonCounty	001	Middlebury	Oct 18, 1785	Part of Rutland County.	Joseph Addison (1672–1719), an English politician and writer.	37,720	770 sq mi (1,994 km2)
BenningtonCounty	003	Bennington, Manchester	Feb 11, 1779	One of the original two counties.	Benning Wentworth (1696–1770), the colonial governor of New Hampshire (1741–1766).	37,183	676 sq mi (1,751 km2)
CaledoniaCounty	005	St. Johnsbury	Nov 5, 1792	Part of Orange County.	Latin name for Scotland.	30,610	651 sq mi (1,686 km2)
ChittendenCounty	007	Burlington	Oct 22, 1787	Part of Addison County.	Thomas Chittenden (1730–1797), first governor of Vermont (1791–1797).	169,481	539 sq mi (1,396 km2)
EssexCounty	009	Guildhall	Nov 5, 1792	Part of Orange County.	Essex, a county in England.	6,010	665 sq mi (1,722 km2)
FranklinCounty	011	St. Albans (city)	Nov 5, 1792	Part of Chittenden County.	Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), one of the most revered Founding Fathers of the United States.	50,994	637 sq mi (1,650 km2)
Grand IsleCounty	013	North Hero	Nov 9, 1802	Part of Chittenden County and Franklin County.	Largest island in Lake Champlain.	7,467	83 sq mi (215 km2)
LamoilleCounty	015	Hyde Park (town)	Oct 26, 1835	Parts of Chittenden County, Franklin County, Orleans County and Washington County.	La Mouette (meaning the seagull), named by French explorer Samuel de Champlain (~1570–1635) but mistranscibed as La Mouelle and eventually corrupted to current spelling.	26,060	461 sq mi (1,194 km2)
OrangeCounty	017	Chelsea	Feb 22, 1781	Part of Cumberland County.	Prince William (1650–1702) of Orange.	29,943	689 sq mi (1,785 km2)
OrleansCounty	019	Newport (city)	Nov 5, 1792	Part of Chittenden County and Orange County.	City of Orléans, France.	27,516	697 sq mi (1,805 km2)
RutlandCounty	021	Rutland (city)	Feb 22, 1781	Part of Bennington County.	Town of Rutland, Massachusetts.	60,271	932 sq mi (2,414 km2)
WashingtonCounty	023	Montpelier	Nov 1, 1810	Parts of Orange County, Caledonia County, and Chittenden County. Renamed from Jefferson County to Washington County on November 8, 1814	George Washington (1732–1799), first President of the United States (1789–1797).	60,142	690 sq mi (1,787 km2)
WindhamCounty	025	Newfane	Feb 22, 1779 [a] (as Cumberland County) (renamed 1781)	One of the original two counties.	Town of Windham, Connecticut.	45,966	789 sq mi (2,044 km2)
WindsorCounty	027	Woodstock	Feb 22, 1781	Part of Cumberland County.	Town of Windsor, Connecticut.	58,101	971 sq mi (2,515 km2)

See also

• List of cities in Vermont
• List of gores in Vermont
• List of towns in Vermont
• List of former United States counties

Notes

• ^a There are several sources that state the formation year for Windham County is 1781 and that Cumberland County was dissolved rather than renamed. ^[8]

References

1. "Vermont County Information". Genealogy Trails. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
2. "EPA County FIPS Code Listing". EPA. Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
3. "NACo - Find a county". National Association of Counties. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
4. "Vermont County Creation Dates and Parent Counties". www.familysearch.org. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
5. Kane, Joseph & Aiken, Charles (2004). The American Counties: Origins of County Names, Dates of Creation, and Population Data, 1950-2000 . Scarecrow Press. p.  1. ISBN   0-8108-5036-2 . Retrieved September 11, 2016. Origins of County Names.
6. "Vermont QuickFacts". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved April 20, 2024. (2023 Census estimate)
7. "Vermont QuickFacts". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved September 11, 2016. (2010 Census)
8. "Vermont: Consolidated Chronology of State and County Boundaries". The Newberry Library. 2008. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2009.