How many cities/towns are there in the United States?

[rnmcd]

There must be some source out there that has tallied up the number of towns/cities in the U.S. I figured the Census did it by population but I can't find anything...

 

[CanOWorms]

19,354 incorporated cities/towns/etc. in 1996.. probably hasn't changed TOO much.

 

[rnmcd]

wow, i would have thought a lot more than that...that's only averages about 387 cities/towns per state.

 

[KnickNut3]

Well, you've gotta factor in states like Wyoming, which probably only have about 30 official municipalities.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
19,354 incorporated cities/towns/etc. in 1996.. probably hasn't changed TOO much.

where did you find that at? It has to be more...did they have a population minimum requirement to be included in that total?

 

[RU482]

that's a damn interesting question

99 counties in Iowa, I'd guess an average of 7 towns in each county (693 towns in Iowa)...19354 sounds about right

Gotta ask rnmcd...why do you want to know??

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: redly1
Gotta ask rnmcd...why do you want to know??

He is creating a ClassMates.com-like web site.

 

[MidasKnight]

There is 3 total now. ...j/k ... 🙂

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: redly1
that's a damn interesting question

99 counties in Iowa, I'd guess an average of 7 towns in each county (693 towns in Iowa)...19354 sounds about right

Gotta ask rnmcd...why do you want to know??

I beg to differ with you. There are at almost 1000 incorporated municipalites in Iowa, see "Governmental jurisdictions" at

http://www.dot.state.ia.us/dot...tionfacts_june2004.htm

 

[rnmcd]

^

 

[FoBoT]

42

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
42

you have obviously excluded all towns with the letter "a" or "e" in them!

 

[dullard]

I was going to estimate 25000. The typical Atlas map has about 500 per state, thus 50*500 = 25000. As far as I can see the Atlas includes any incorporated village/town/city. Then I saw CanOWorm's reponse, it probably is better than mine.

 

[Cerebus451]

There are 56,018 distinct city/state name combinations in the August USPS city/state file. That includes Puerto Rico. There might be some instances in that list where the same jurisdiction has more than 1 name, not positive on that. Also, I did not really check the accuracy of the awk output I did, but it is a pretty good rough estimate.

EDIT: Just remembered that in some places (ZIP 15220 for instance) there are listings for Pittsburgh, Wabash, Rook, and PGH. Wabash and Rook are not really recognized names any more, and PGH is obviously just an abbreviation. Might take some more time but I could come up with a count of the names that the post office recognizes as deliverable city names.

EDIT2: Including Puerto Rico, there are 31,420 distinct city/state name pairs that the USPS recognizes as towns that receive mail.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: Cerebus451

EDIT2: Including Puerto Rico, there are 31,420 distinct city/state name pairs that the USPS recognizes as towns that receive mail.

I'm more comfortable with that number. Thanks.

I'm surprised that no one has come up with a list of all the incorporated municipalities in the US.

 

[hevnsnt]

I would say there is an indefinete amount.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: hevnsnt
I would say there is an indefinete amount.

I would think there is some entity that would know the exact number.