List of counties in Wisconsin


The U.S. state of Wisconsin is divided into 72 counties. The land that eventually became Wisconsin was transferred from British to American control with the 1783 signing of the Treaty of Paris. It was an unorganized part of the Northwest Territory until 1802 when all of the land from St. Louis north to the Canadian border was organized as St. Clair County. When Illinois was admitted to the union in 1818, Wisconsin became part of the Territory of Michigan and divided into two counties: Brown County in the northeast along Lake Michigan and Crawford County in the southwest along the Mississippi River. Iowa County was formed in 1829 from the Crawford County land south of the Wisconsin River. Brown County's southern portion was used to form Milwaukee County in 1834. The state of Wisconsin was created from Wisconsin Territory on May 29, 1848, with 28 counties.
Counties in Wisconsin are governed by county boards, headed by a chairperson. Counties with a population of 500,000 or more must also have a county executive. Smaller counties may have either a county executive or a county administrator. As of 2011, 13 counties had elected county executives: Brown, Chippewa, Dane, Fond du Lac, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Portage, Racine, Sawyer, Waukesha, and Winnebago. 23 had an appointed county administrator, 34 had an appointed administrative coordinator, and 2 had neither an executive nor an administrator. Waukesha County had both an executive and an administrator.
Each county has a county seat, often a populous or centrally located community, where the county's governmental offices are located. Some of the services provided by the county include: law enforcement, circuit courts, social services, vital records and deed registration, road maintenance, and snow removal. County officials include sheriffs, district attorneys, clerks, treasurers, coroners, surveyors, registers of deeds, and clerks of circuit court; these officers are elected for four-year terms. In most counties, elected coroners have been replaced by appointed medical examiners. State law permits counties to appoint a registered land surveyor in place of electing a surveyor.
The most populous county in the state is Milwaukee County at 947,735 people at the 2010 census. Its population is bolstered by the city of Milwaukee's 594,833 people. The county with the least population is Menominee County with 4,232 residents; the Menominee Indian Reservation is co-extensive with the county. Pepin County is the smallest in area, with ; Marathon is the largest, having.
The Federal Information Processing Standard code, which is used by the United States government to uniquely identify states and counties, is provided with each entry. Wisconsin's code is 55, which when combined with any county code would be written as 55XXX. The FIPS code for each county links to census data for that county.

List of counties

Renamed and proposed counties

Five counties in Wisconsin have been renamed and two have been proposed.
CountyDatesEtymologyFate
Bad Ax County1851–1862The Bad Axe River, Battle of Bad Axe
Renamed Vernon County in 1862.
Century County1997Proposed in 1997 for creation after the year 2000; the name was selected to represent "a new county for a new century".-
Dallas County1859–1869George M. Dallas
Vice President of the United States
Renamed Barron County in 1869.
Gates County1901–1905Milwaukee land speculator James L. GatesRenamed Rusk County in 1905.
La Pointe County1845–1866Renamed Bayfield County in 1866.
New County1879–1880A new county formed from part of Oconto CountyRenamed Langlade County in 1880
Tuskola County1850proposed county to come from Washington County in 1850 Within modern Washington and Ozaukee counties