List of counties in Delaware

Each county elects a legislative body (known in New Castle and Sussex counties as the County Council, and in Kent County as the Levy Court). The counties are able to raise taxes and borrow money. They also have control over garbage disposal, water supply, sewerage, zoning, development, and building codes.{{cite web|url=http://delcode.delaware.gov/title9/c041/sc02/index.shtml|title=Chapter Title 9 Counties|work=Online Delaware Code|publisher=Government of Delaware}}

Most functions which are handled on a county-by-county basis in other states—such as court and law enforcement—have been centralized in Delaware, leading to a significant concentration of power in the Delaware state government. The counties were historically divided into hundreds, which were used as tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s. However, the hundreds now serve no administrative role; their only current official legal use is in real-estate title descriptions.{{cite web|url=http://history.delaware.gov/museums/vc/vc_hundreds.shtml |title=The Hundreds of Delaware: 1700–1800, Delaware Department of State:Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs website |access-date=2008-02-25 |work=The Official Website of the Government of Delaware |publisher=Government of Delaware |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220114955/http://history.delaware.gov/museums/vc/vc_hundreds.shtml |archive-date=2008-02-20 |url-status=dead }}

Following the English conquest of 1664, all of the land on the western side of the Delaware River and Delaware Bay was governed as part of the New York Colony and administered from the town of New Castle. During the brief recapture of the colony by the Dutch in 1673, additional court districts were created around Upland and Whorekill.{{cite web|last=The Historical Society of Delaware |year=1997 |url=http://www.hsd.org/DHE/DHE_where_counties.htm |title=Delaware Counties |access-date=2006-06-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719162033/http://www.hsd.org/DHE/DHE_where_counties.htm |archive-date=2006-07-19 }} The latter was also known as Hoornkill, and is now the town of Lewes.{{cite web|url=http://lewestownpublishers.com/lewes_history/whorekill.html|title=The Name of Whorekill|author=Hazel D. Brittingham|year=1997|access-date=2007-04-24|publisher=Lewestown Publishers|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713202643/http://lewestownpublishers.com/lewes_history/whorekill.html|archive-date=2011-07-13}} The court at New Castle was left with the central portion of the colony. The jurisdiction left to the court at became New Castle County, and the county seat remained at New Castle until 1881 when it was moved to Wilmington. In 1680, Whorekill District was divided into Deale County and St. Jones County.{{cite web |last= Delaware Genealogical Society |publisher= Delaware Genealogical Society |year= 1997 |url= http://delgensoc.org/delhund.html |title= Delaware Counties and Hundreds |access-date= 2006-06-01 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060613055310/http://delgensoc.org/delhund.html |archive-date= 2006-06-13 }} After this division, Lewes became the county seat of Deale, which was later renamed Sussex County. The former Upland District was named after the New Sweden settlement of Upland, and was renamed Chester County in 1682.{{cite book |url=http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/SW_Chapter01.htm |access-date=2008-02-24|title=History of Philadelphia 1609–1884|author=J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott|chapter=Chapter 1: Topography of Philadelphia|publisher=Philadelphia Water Department}} Chester County is now located within the present boundaries of Pennsylvania.{{cite web|url=http://dsf.chesco.org/|access-date=2008-04-02|title=Chester County website|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419133232/http://dsf.chesco.org/|archive-date=2008-04-19}}

Lord Baltimore, the Proprietor of Maryland, claimed all present-day Delaware, and organized its northern and eastern portions as Durham County, Maryland. However, this county existed only on paper. The southern and western portions of present-day Sussex County were organized as portions of several adjacent Maryland counties and were not recognized as part of Delaware until the Mason-Dixon Survey was run in 1767.{{cite web|url=http://www.udel.edu/johnmack/mason_dixon/|title=A brief history of the Mason-Dixon survey line|author=John Mackenzie|access-date=2007-04-24|publisher=University of Delaware|archive-date=2007-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312150011/http://www.udel.edu/johnmack/mason_dixon/|url-status=dead}} In 1791, with the expansion of Sussex County to the south and west, the county seat was moved to Georgetown. The county seat of St. Jones (renamed Kent County in 1681) is at Dover.

After 2000, a fourth "Appoquinimink County" was proposed to be carved out of New Castle County. The effort intended to end the zoning restrictions of the Unified Development Code on the undeveloped farmland.{{cite web|url=http://www.co.new-castle.de.us/czo/brwsframe_j.asp|title=Unified Development Code|access-date=2008-10-01|publisher=New Castle County|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041216052313/http://www.co.new-castle.de.us/czo/brwsframe_j.asp |archive-date = December 16, 2004}}

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The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, which is used by the United States government to uniquely identify counties, is provided with each entry. The FIPS code for each county links to census data for that county.

{{Countytabletop

| region_width =

| fips_ref = {{cite web |url=http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/codes/pa.html |title=EPA County FIPS Code Listing |work=EPA.gov |access-date=2008-02-23}}

| region_seat_title = County seat

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| region_seat_ref = {{cite web

|url=http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=/cffiles/counties/state.cfm&state.cfm&statecode=DE

|title=NACo – Find a county

|author=National Association of Counties

|access-date=2008-04-30

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050410090214/http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=%2Fcffiles%2Fcounties%2Fstate.cfm&state.cfm&statecode=DE

|archive-date=April 10, 2005

|url-status=dead

}}

| data2_title = {{abbr|Est.|Established}}

| data2_width =

| data2_ref =

| data3_title = History

| data3_width =

| data3_ref = {{cite web|last=The Historical Society of Delaware |year=1997 |url=http://www.hsd.org/DHE/DHE_where_counties.htm |title=Delaware Counties |access-date=2006-06-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719162033/http://www.hsd.org/DHE/DHE_where_counties.htm |archive-date=2006-07-19 }}

| data4_title = Etymology

| data4_width =

| data4_ref =

| data4_unsortable = yes

| population_ref = [https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/sussexcountydelaware,newcastlecountydelaware,kentcountydelaware/PST045223/ Delaware Census Data]

| area_ref =

}}

{{Countyrow|Name=Kent

|N=10|Num=001

|Seat=Dover

|Data2=1680

|Data3=Created from Whorekill (Hoarkill) District. Formerly known as St. Jones County.

|Data4=named in 1682 by William Penn for the English county of Kent

|Population=192690

|Area=800

|Size=50px}}

{{Countyrow|Name=New Castle

|N=10|Num=003

|Seat=Wilmington

|Data2=1664

|Data3=Original County (Formally New Amstel)

|Data4=named in 1673 by Dutch Governor Anthony Colve for the town of New Castle, Delaware as an Anglicization of Nieuw Amstel.

|Population=588093

|Area=494

|Size=50px}}

{{Countyrow|Name=Sussex

|N=10|Num=005

|Seat=Georgetown

|Data2=1664

|Data3=Created from Whorekill (Hoarkill) District. Formerly known as Deale County

|Data4=named in 1682 by William Penn for the English county of Sussex, which was his home county

|Population=271134

|Area=1196

|Size=50px}}

|}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |year=2022 |title=County Government Overview: Delaware |url=https://ce.naco.org//app/profiles/CountyGov/CountyGov_10000.pdf |url-access= |publisher=National Association of Counties (NACo) |url-status= |archive-url= |access-date=January 3, 2025}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160820145648/http://www.co.kent.de.us/ Kent County]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051113223033/http://www.co.new-castle.de.us/defaulthome/home/webpage1.asp New Castle County]
• [http://www.sussexcountyde.gov/ Sussex County]

{{Delaware}}

{{U.S. Counties}}

{{Delaware Government}}

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Delaware, counties in

Counties