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Rhode Island Counties

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Rhode Island Counties

There are five counties in the state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island has 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.

Washington County, Rhode Island

Washington County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Wakefield
Year Organized: 1729
Square Miles: 333

Court House:

County Courthouse
4800 Tower Hill Road
Wakefield, RI 02879-2239

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Renamed for first American President George Washington and was formerly named King's Province, after King Charles II of England. (It is usually called South County by Rhode Islanders.)

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Washington County Has No Form Of County Government.

Parent County: Newport

Washington County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Washington County borders Kent County to the north, New London County in Connecticut to the west, Suffolk County in New York to the southwest and Newport County, Rhode Island to the east.

Originally named King's County and changed to its present name in 1781, the county is usually known within the state as South County.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 563 square miles (1,458 km²), of which, 333 square miles (862 km²) of it is land and 230 square miles (596 km²) of it (40.87%) is water.

Refuse scattered around Washington County's highest pointThe county's topography ranges from flat along the shoreline to gently rolling hills further inland. The highest point is a large area approximately 560 feet (171 m) in the Exeter neighborhood of Black Plain; the lowest point is sea level along the coast.

Neighboring Counties:

Kent County: north
New London County in Connecticut: west
Suffolk County in New York: southwest
Newport County, Rhode Island: east

Cities and Towns:

- Charlestown	town
- Exeter	town
- Hopkinton	town
- Narragansett	town
- New Shoreham	town
- North Kingstown	town
- Richmond	town
- South Kingstown	town
- Wakefield (County Seat)
- Westerly	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."