A parish is an administrative division used by several countries. … The term “county” is used in 48 US states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes and boroughs respectively.

Why are counties called parishes?

The parishes are remnants of a bygone era, as Louisiana was Roman Catholic during both France and Spain’s ruling of the state. The boundaries, or parishes, neatly coincided with the state’s church parishes. This made it a lot easier to discuss regions.

What two states have parishes instead of counties?

Louisiana has parishes instead of counties, and Alaska has boroughs. The states of Rhode Island and Connecticut do not have county governments at all—counties are geographic, not political.

The U.S. state of Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes (French: paroisses, Spanish: parroquias) in the same manner that Alaska is divided into boroughs, and 48 other states are divided into counties.