County Lines Map: What County Am I In, and How Far Is the State Line?
Use your location, search an address, or click the map to see the county, the nearest county line and the nearest state line, with the distance and direction to each.
State line County line (zoom in to a state). Lines are approximate: Census's generalised map boundaries, not the legal lines. For anything official, check with the county.
What county is it?
Press Use My Location, search an address, ZIP code or town, or click anywhere on the map. The county, the nearest county line and the nearest state line show here, with a line drawn to each on the map.
Got a list of addresses? Address County Lookup gives the county and city limits for up to 1,000 at once.
County Lines and State Lines on One Map
The map shows every US county line and state line from the Census Bureau's boundary files. Zoom in to a state, or pick one from the list, to see its county lines and names. Press Use My Location, search an address, ZIP code or town, or click the map, and the page tells you which county the spot is in, how far it is to the nearest county line and which county is on the other side, and how far it is to the nearest state line and which state that is.
It answers questions like "how far am I from the Ohio state line?" or "what county is this?" without a second address to type in. Distances are straight-line (as the crow flies), with the direction: north, southeast and so on.
Before You Rely on the Answer
- The lines are approximate. They are Census's generalised cartographic boundaries, not the legal lines. Checked against Census's official TIGER/Line boundaries, 99.9% of points on county lines were within about 1,000 feet of ours, the largest gaps on land, along rivers, were about 2,500 feet, and in bays and sounds the legal line can be a mile or more out. Within about 1,000 feet of a line the page names both counties instead of picking one, and out to about 3,300 feet it says to check.
- Searches for a ZIP code or a town show its center. A ZIP code or a town can cross a county line, so for a particular property, search its street address.
- The coast is the end of the land. County and state lines here stop at the shoreline, so across a lake or bay the distance is measured over the water.
- For legal questions, ask the county. Taxes, voting, permits and school places depend on the official boundary, which the county assessor or clerk can confirm.
What Is Sent Where
Use My Location (asked only when you press it) and clicks on the map are worked out in your browser: the point itself is not sent to us or anyone else, and nothing is put in the page address. The county and state lines are downloaded from our data server (data.maptools.co) a state at a time, so our server sees which states' lines were asked for (the state you are in and its neighbours), and the map tiles for the area on screen from a map tile server. A ZIP code or town is looked up in our own files. A street address is first matched against our own address data in your browser; if it isn't found there, it is sent to our server, which asks the US Census Bureau and then Geocodio for its coordinates. We don't log your searches. If Geocodio finds it, we keep the coordinate it found for 24 hours, filed under a one-way hash of the address rather than the address itself; nothing records who searched or when. Privacy policy
Where the Lines Come From
The lines are the US Census Bureau's 2024 cartographic boundary files for counties and states (cb_2024_us_county_500k and cb_2024_us_state_500k), public domain, simplified for the web. They include all 3,235 counties and county equivalents in the 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico and the island areas. Census updates them each year as counties report changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What county am I in?
Press Use My Location and allow your browser to share your position. The page shows your county and state, the nearest county line and the nearest state line, with a line drawn to each. The answer is worked out in your browser: your position itself is not sent to us or anyone else, though the files it downloads show which state you are in (the county lines for that state and its neighbours) and the map tiles show the area on screen. You can also search an address, a ZIP code or a town, or click anywhere on the map.
How far am I from the state line?
Use your location or search an address, and the page gives the straight-line distance to the nearest point of another state, the direction, and which state and county are across it, for example "Indiana is 13 miles southeast (Lake County)". The distance is as the crow flies, not by road.
How do I see county lines on the map?
Zoom in to a state, or pick one from "Show a state's counties", and every county line in view is drawn in purple, with the county names once you zoom in further. State lines are drawn in black at every zoom.
How accurate are the county lines?
They are approximate. The lines are the US Census Bureau's 2024 cartographic boundaries: generalised map lines drawn for 1:500,000 maps, not the legal boundaries, and simplified a little more for the web (by at most about 125 feet). We checked them against Census's official TIGER/Line boundaries for 300 counties: half the points on county lines were within about 25 feet of our line, 99% within about 270 feet, and 99.9% within about 1,000 feet. The largest gaps on land, up to about 2,500 feet, are along lines that follow rivers; where a legal line runs through a bay or sound, it can be a mile or more from the shore Census draws. So within about 1,000 feet of a line the page says you are on or near it and names both counties, and out to about 3,300 feet it adds a note to check. Addresses are placed by the Census geocoder along the street, and a phone's position can be off too. For taxes, voting, permits or anything else official, check with the county.
Why does the distance to a county line cross water?
Census's cartographic boundaries end at the shoreline, so a county along a lake, bay or the sea stops at the water's edge. The distance is measured to the nearest land of the next county or state, which on the coast or across a lake can be over the water.
What about independent cities, parishes and boroughs?
They are shown the way Census counts them, as county equivalents. Virginia's independent cities (and Baltimore, St. Louis and Carson City) are part of no county. Louisiana has parishes, Alaska has boroughs and census areas, and Puerto Rico has municipios. Washington, DC is one county equivalent of its own.
Why does Connecticut show planning regions, not counties?
Since 2022 the Census Bureau has used Connecticut's nine planning regions in place of its eight historical counties, which have had no county government since 1960. Many people still give the old county name; those older lines are not on this map.
Can I find the county for a list of addresses?
Yes, on our Address County Lookup: paste up to 1,000 addresses or upload a CSV file, and it gives each one's county, city limits, town or township and ZIP code, as a table you can download. This map answers one spot at a time.
Related Tools
- Address County Lookup - the county and city limits for a list of up to 1,000 addresses, or a CSV file
- Distance Between - the straight-line distance between two places
- Where Am I - your coordinates and address, with an honest accuracy circle
- ZIP Code Mapper - plot a list of ZIP codes on a map