Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. counties

WikiProject guidelines
First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about states, counties, cities and towns. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles! Also, one of our top goals is to replace "is" with "was" when describing the population of county articles, as the census data is already dated when it is published, and also to replace 2010 and earlier census info and estimates with accurate, up-to-date, 2020 census data.

Definition
This WikiProject aims primarily to provide information on all of the U.S. states' counties, independent cities (Virginia), boroughs (Alaska), census areas (Alaska), and parishes (Louisiana). It also provides information on the analogous administration districts (if any) in the current U.S. Federal Territories (District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, etc.).

Project banner template
Please place the following template on article talk pages related to U.S. counties, parishes or boroughs:
 * template should be placed on the talk pages of relevant articles to put them under the project's scope. It looks like this:

Participants
Please add your username to the list below and add   to your user page.

(In alphabetical order)

Inactive members

 * 1) - No edits since May 2009
 * 2) - No edits since December 2009
 * 3) - No edits since August 2008
 * 4) - Two edits since June 2010
 * 5) - No edits since October 2006
 * 6) - One edit since August 2009
 * 7) - Two edits since October 2009
 * 8) - No edits since June 2006
 * 9) - No edits since June 2007
 * 10) - No edits since June 2010
 * 11) - No edits since February 2009
 * 12) - No edits since April 2010
 * 13) - No edits since January 2010
 * 14) - Two edits since May 2010
 * 15) - No edits since March 2009
 * 16) - Two edits since December 2009
 * 17) - One edit since December 2010

Background
There is an article called County (United States) that discusses U.S. Counties in general, as opposed to any particular county, and provides a list of U.S. counties. It also lists the analogous administration districts of the current U.S. Federal Territories, and explains the differences between the various types of "counties". Pages on the administrative districts of U.S. Federal Territories are to have the same format as U.S. counties, subject to appropriate variances.

Each state has a list of counties. There is a primary table, FIPS state code as well as a primary page List of Counties of the United States that both point to the list of every county. Each page also includes the footer which interconnects all of them to each other, U.S. Counties. It looks like this:

Further information on the state county lists can found at WikiProject U.S. counties/county lists.

How to use the template
A template article can be found at the bottom of this page. This section explains aspects of writing good county articles that the template doesn't address.

Naming the article
Each U.S. county is called by the common name of the state, e.g. Jackson County, Michigan. Where needed, a link to the county is placed on a more general entry page, e.g. Jackson contains links to Jackson County, Michigan, Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson, Michigan, and many more.

How the text should flow
The article should consist of a few short paragraphs that give an outline of the history, politics, etc.. of the county. If any section becomes too long, It should be split off into a separate article with more detail, leaving a brief summary behind. The beginning of the section should look like this example:

Content suggestions

 * Introduction
 * History
 * Origin of the county's name
 * Circumstances of the county's establishment
 * Major historical events that occurred in county
 * Geography
 * County seat -- see complete list of county seats at http://www.campbellslist.com/county_seats/select_county_seat.php
 * Physical geography (area, unique features)
 * Geographic center and bounds, polygonal outline (latitude and longitude points)
 * List of contiguous counties
 * Demographics
 * County population
 * Racial/ethnic makeup
 * Religious makeup
 * Law/Government
 * Legislative body
 * County Executive-- current, previous executives
 * County taxes
 * Presidential Election Results
 * Economy
 * Major industries/products
 * Largest employers
 * Education
 * Colleges/Universities in county
 * Recreation
 * Major parks and cultural institutions
 * Notable festivals and parades, with dates
 * Sporting teams in county
 * Communities
 * Census-recognized cities and towns in the county
 * List of municipalities
 * List of townships or other subdivisions
 * List of unincorporated communities in the county
 * List of adjacent counties
 * County Name - direction to border/optional direction to county
 * Note border shared with other country, if exists
 * Link back to full list of counties for state
 * Start at northernmost point, and move clockwise
 * See Jefferson County, Washington for example
 * Notable people
 * Notable people should be placed into appropriate city or town articles within the county; list here those where a specific location in unknown
 * A link to a list of counties in that county's state

Categorization
Every county should be in at least one category, of the form "StateOrTerritoryName counties" (or "Alaska boroughs", "Alaska census areas", "Louisiana parishes").

About the U.S. county maps
The red and black U.S. county maps are generated from scanned public domain originals, which have then been modified by User:Wapcaplet and User:Jdforrester to indicate the counties and licensed under the GFDL. User:The Anome has uploaded these images using a bot. User:Ram-Man included links to these maps in all of the county articles.

Each of these county maps is credited thus: "Public domain U.S. county map courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin, modified to show counties. Released under GFDL."

The page WikiProject U.S. Counties/checklist has pointers to all of the image filenames, whether they are uploaded yet or not.

The gold maps for California counties and grey maps for Nevada counties were done by User:Brion.

Template for a U.S. County
Don't forget to replace the "_" with the name of the article being converted. For the table, replace the Xs with the proper information.

(See example use in the Prince George's County, Maryland article.)

_ is located in the U.S. state of _.

Introductory paragraph.

History
Main article: History of _

Geography
Main article: Geography of _

Geographic features
- orography - weather - soils - hydrography - protected areas

Adjacent counties

 * Abc County (north)
 * Nop County (northeast)
 * Xyz County, across the Deep River (east)
 * Mexico (south)
 * Pacific Ocean (west)

(A public domain list of adjacent counties for all 50 states in wiki format is available, but as of this writing has not been entered for all states.  See talk page for status)

Demographics
Main article: Demographics of _

Economy
Main article: Economy of _

Government
Main article: Government of _

Colleges and universities
Or alternatively use:

Notes and references
See WP:CITE for more information about how to use this section.