Number of Governmental Units, by Type statistics



Type of government	1942	1952¹	1962	1967	1972	1977	1982	1987	1992	1997


Total......................................	155,116	116,807	91,237	81,299	78,269	79,913	81,831	83,237	85,006	87,504

U.S. Government......................................	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
State government................................	48	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50
Local governments.................................	155,067	116,756	91,186	81,248	78,218	79,862	81,780	83,186	84,955	87,453
County.........................................	3,050	3,052	3,043	3,049	3,044	3,042	3,041	3,042	3,043	3,043
Municipal.....................................	16,220	16,807	18,000	18,048	18,517	18,862	19,076	19,200	19,279	19,372
Township and town................................	18,919	17,202	17,142	17,105	16,991	16,822	16,734	16,691	16,656	16,629
School district..................................	108,579	67,355	34,678	21,782	15,781	15,174	14,851	14,721	14,422	13,726
Special district.................................	8,299	12,340	18,323	21,264	23,885	25,962	28,078	29,532	31,555	34,683

1 Adjusted to include units in Alaska and Hawaii which adopted statehood in 1959.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Governments, Government Organization", series (GC(1)-1), quinquennial.

http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/govern.html * CENSUS OF GOVERNMENTS

PURPOSE

To provide periodic and comprehensive statistics about governments and governmental activities. The United States Code, Title 13, requires this census and provides for voluntary responses.

COVERAGE

All state and local governments in the U.S. Local governments include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts. Government activities are those classified in SIC Division J and selected other Divisions (such as state liquor stores, Division G, and education services, Division I). Data for Federal agencies are reformatted and included to show total public sector activities. In 1995, government purchases of goods and services accounted for 12 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

CONTENT

Data are obtained on government organizations, finances, and employment. Organizations data include location, type, and characteristics of local governments and officials. Finances and employment data are the same as in comparable annual surveys and include revenue, expenditures, debt, assets, employees, payroll, and benefits.

FREQUENCY

Every 5 years since 1957, for years ending in "2" and "7." Reference periods for data vary by census phase; organization counts are for the calendar year prior to the census year, assessment and finance data are for the fiscal year prior to July, and employment data are for October of the census year. Starting in 1997, employment will be for March of the census year.

METHODS

A three-phased state and local government data collection, supplemented by data from Federal agencies. Phase 1 is a pre-census directory survey of all 85,000 local governments. It is primarily a mail-out/mail-back survey; and produces an updated list of all local governments and selected data.

Phase 2 expands the census-year annual finances survey from about 13,000 to all 85,000 local governments. It uses on-site data collections for all states and some 130 large local governments, consolidated data submissions (usually on computer tapes) for about 50,000 additional local governments, and a mail-out/mail-back survey of other governments. Similarly, phase 3 expands the census-year annual employment survey from about 13,000 to all local governments; and relies on both consolidated data submissions and a mail-out/mail-back survey.

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http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/490_number_of_governmental_units_by_type.html

These tables are based on figures supplied by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and are subject to revision by the Census Bureau.

Copyright © 2006 Photius Coutsoukis and Information Technology Associates, all rights reserved.