Number 5 | ||
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Location State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Populations 49,875 (Bristol) – 626,667 (Providence) Areas 24 square miles (62 km) (Bristol) – 409 square miles (1,060 km) (Providence) Government County government (defunct since 1846) Subdivisions cities, towns,villages, unincorporated communities, census designated place | ||
This is a list of the five counties in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island is tied with Hawaii for having the second-lowest number of counties of any U.S. state (only Delaware has fewer, with three counties). Although Rhode Island is divided into counties, it does not have any local government at the county level. Instead, local governance is provided by the eight cities and thirty-one towns. Counties in Rhode Island have had no governmental functions since 1846 other than as court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries which are part of state government.
Within Rhode Island, Washington County is colloquially referred to as South County.
The colony of Rhode Island was established in the 17th century, and was the first of the thirteen original American colonies to declare independence from British rule in 1776, signaling the start of the American Revolution. The counties were all established before the Declaration of Independence.
The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, which is used by the United States government to uniquely identify states and counties, is provided with each entry. Rhode Island's code is 44, which when combined with any county code would be written as 44XXX. The FIPS code for each county links to census data for that county.