Local government in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
consists of county, school district, and municipal governments.
County
There are 10
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
in the state of New Hampshire responsible for local
sheriff services,
nursing home
A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...
s, and
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
s. A county is governed by a board of county commissioners. Similar to the rest of
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
, county government in New Hampshire is very weak and have relatively few responsibilities compared to states in other regions. Most local government functions are performed at the town and city level.
School district
Municipal
New Hampshire contains 234
incorporated towns and cities. Thirteen are cities and 221 are towns. Towns and cities are treated identically under state law. The primary difference is that cities are former towns who dropped the
town meeting
Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
form of government in favor of a city form through special act of the
New Hampshire General Court
The General Court of New Hampshire is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The lower house is the New Hampshire House of Representatives with 400 members. The upper house is the New Hampshire Senate with 24 mem ...
. Since 1979, however, any town or city can change its form of government by creation of a new charter and voter approval of the new municipal charter. Cities and towns are nominally divisions of the state. However, as in the rest of New England, the laws governing their authority are very broadly construed.
Collectively, these 234 municipalities cover the vast majority of, but not all of, the state's territory. There are some unincorporated areas in the sparsely populated northern region of the state. Most of the unincorporated areas are in
Coos County, the state's northernmost county.
Carroll and
Grafton counties also contain small amounts of unincorporated territory. This territory includes unincorporated townships, some of which are known as grants, purchases and locations. Thornton Gore is part of the town of
Thornton. The remaining seven counties in the state are entirely incorporated (Grafton County was also fully incorporated at one time, but lost that status when
the town of Livermore disincorporated). Fewer than 250 of the state's residents live in unincorporated areas.
* The largest municipality in New Hampshire, by population (as of the 2010 census), is the city of
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
(pop. 109,565).
* The largest which is a town and not a city is
Derry (pop. 33,109).
* The smallest which is a city and not a town is
Franklin (pop. 8,477).
* The smallest incorporated municipality overall is the town of
Hart's Location (pop. 41).
* The largest municipality by land area is the town of
Pittsburg ().
* The smallest is the town of
New Castle ().
See also
*
New England town
The town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns overlay the entire area of a state, s ...
*
List of places in New Hampshire
This is a list of administrative subdivisions and populated places of the lands of New Hampshire, United States.
:''See also'US Geographic Names Information System query
Counties
Counties are administratively divided into towns, cities, and u ...
{{New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...