Ballotpedia study: 7 percent of American counties have no official website
January 27, 2016
By Ballotpedia's Municipal government project
In January 2016, Ballotpedia conducted a study of all counties across the United States and found that 239 (7.72 percent) of the 3,095 counties did not have official websites. Those counties had a combined population of 8.47 million in 2014, meaning that 2.66 percent of the United States population had no access to a county website. The state with the highest percentage of counties lacking websites was Vermont, at 57.1 percent, while the state with the highest total number of counties missing websites was Oklahoma, at 37 counties. In the following nine states, more than 20 percent of counties do not have websites: Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont.
Hover over the map below to see the percentage of counties in each state that have official websites.
Why wouldn't a county have a website?
Of the 239 counties that do not have websites, only 11 have populations of more than 100,000. The largest such county is Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with a population of 1.57 million. It lacks an official website because the county government was abolished in 1997, but the boundaries remain primarily for administrative purposes.
All of the entities in Alaska that are missing websites are census areas, which do not have functioning county governments. These areas cover roughly 280,000 square miles and have an average population density of 0.44 people per square mile. The lack of a true government structure and general decentralization makes a government website unnecessary.
The counties in Oklahoma without websites share many similarities with those in Alaska. The 37 counties have an average population density of 24 people per square mile. Those counties cover an average of nearly 900 square miles each. Many of these counties do have websites for specific government services, most commonly the sheriff, but have no single centralized resource.
In Vermont, the county governments are very limited when compared to their counterparts across the country. Rather than electing county commissioners, voters in Vermont traditionally decide on positions such as sheriffs, judges and bailiffs.[1] Due to the limited power of counties, state and municipal governments assume most of the functions of county government.
Breakdown by state
| Number of counties without websites | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Total counties | Counties without websites | Percentage of counties without websites | Percentage of population without website coverage |
| Alabama | 67 | 9 | 13.43% | 3.08% |
| Alaska | 22 | 9 | 40.91% | 7.46% |
| Arizona | 15 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Arkansas | 75 | 13 | 17.33% | 12.30% |
| California | 58 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Colorado | 64 | 2 | 3.13% | 0.21% |
| Connecticut | 8 | 2 | 25.00% | 29.55% |
| Delaware | 3 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Florida | 67 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Georgia | 159 | 7 | 4.4% | 0.71% |
| Hawaii | 5 | 1 | 20.00% | 0.01% |
| Idaho | 44 | 3 | 6.82% | 0.78% |
| Illinois | 102 | 17 | 16.67% | 1.86% |
| Indiana | 92 | 2 | 2.17% | 0.45% |
| Iowa | 99 | 1 | 1.01% | 0.28% |
| Kansas | 105 | 5 | 4.76% | 0.45% |
| Kentucky | 120 | 3 | 2.50% | 2.39% |
| Louisiana | 64 | 29 | 45.31% | 21.93% |
| Maine | 16 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Maryland | 24 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Massachusetts | 14 | 4 | 28.57% | 42.65% |
| Michigan | 83 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Minnesota | 87 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Mississippi | 82 | 23 | 28.05% | 16.10% |
| Missouri | 115 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Montana | 56 | 4 | 7.14% | 1.58% |
| Nebraska | 93 | 3 | 3.23% | 0.22% |
| Nevada | 16 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| New Hampshire | 10 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| New Jersey | 21 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| New Mexico | 33 | 1 | 3.03% | 0.09% |
| New York | 62 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| North Carolina | 100 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| North Dakota | 53 | 6 | 11.32% | 2.20% |
| Ohio | 88 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Oklahoma | 77 | 37 | 48.05% | 19.46% |
| Oregon | 36 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Pennsylvania | 67 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Rhode Island | 5 | 2 | 40.00% | 27.65% |
| South Carolina | 46 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| South Dakota | 66 | 22 | 33.33% | 9.85% |
| Tennessee | 95 | 16 | 16.84% | 4.28% |
| Texas | 254 | 10 | 3.94% | 0.20% |
| Utah | 29 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Vermont | 14 | 8 | 57.14% | 73.81% |
| Virginia | 95 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Washington | 39 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| West Virginia | 55 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Wisconsin | 72 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Wyoming | 23 | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Total | 3,095 | 239 | 7.72% | 2.66% |
Breakdown by region
| Statistics by U.S. Census Bureau region | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region/Division | Total counties | Counties without websites | Percentage of counties without websites |
| Northeast | 217 | 16 | 7.37% |
| New England | 67 | 16 | 23.88% |
| Mid-Atlantic | 150 | 0 | 0% |
| Midwest | 1,055 | 56 | 5.31% |
| East North Central | 437 | 19 | 4.34% |
| West North Central | 618 | 37 | 5.99% |
| South | 1,383 | 147 | 10.63% |
| South Atlantic | 549 | 7 | 1.28% |
| East South Central | 364 | 51 | 14.01% |
| West South Central | 470 | 89 | 18.94% |
| West | 440 | 20 | 4.55% |
| Mountain | 280 | 9 | 3.21% |
| Pacific | 160 | 11 | 6.88% |
List of counties without a website
The following table lists all counties in the United States that did not have a website as of January 2016.
See also
External links
Footnotes
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Contact information
 c/o The Lucy Burns Institute
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