Counties of Massachusetts | |
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Location | Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
Number | 14 |
Populations | 14,444 (Nantucket) – 1,623,952 (Middlesex) |
Areas | 48 square miles (120 km2) (Nantucket) – 1,513 square miles (3,920 km2) (Worcester) |
Government | |
Subdivisions |
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The U.S. state of Massachusetts has 14 counties, though eight[1] of these fourteen county governments were abolished between 1997 and 2000. The counties in the southeastern portion of the state retain county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) or, in one case, (Nantucket County) consolidated city-county government.[2][3] Vestigial judicial and law enforcement districts still follow county boundaries even in the counties whose county-level government has been disestablished, and the counties are still generally recognized as geographic entities if not political ones.[4] Three counties (Hampshire, Barnstable, and Franklin) have formed new county regional compacts to serve as a form of regional governance.