New Hampshire county map

How New Hampshire’s counties are laid out

New Hampshire’s 10 counties divide 9,349 square miles, the fifth-smallest state, and 1,377,529 people (2020). The counties run in rough tiers from south to north. The two southern counties, Hillsborough and Rockingham, sit on the Massachusetts line within commuting distance of Boston and hold more than half the population. Above them Cheshire, Sullivan and Merrimack (the capital Concord) span the middle of the state; Belknap and Strafford take in Lake Winnipesaukee and the Dover–Rochester area; Grafton and Carroll cover the White Mountains; and Coos County alone occupies the whole northern quarter up to the Quebec border.

The first five counties — Rockingham, Strafford, Hillsborough, Cheshire and Grafton — were set up by the colonial assembly in 1769 and named for British statesmen and officials, a rare survival in New England, where most counties carry English place names. Coos was cut from Grafton in 1803, Merrimack and Sullivan were formed in 1823 and 1827, and Belknap and Carroll, both created in 1840, completed the map. Hillsborough is unusual in having two county seats, Manchester and Nashua, and Strafford’s seat is Dover, the oldest permanent settlement in the state (1623).

As in the rest of New England, towns rather than counties are the main unit of local government. New Hampshire counties do keep elected commissioners, a sheriff, a register of deeds and a county attorney, and they run the county nursing homes and jails, but they levy no property tax of their own and have no zoning role. The whole state is on Eastern Time.

All 10 counties of New Hampshire

Five county facts

• Largest by area: Coos County, seat Lancaster, about 1,830 square miles — a fifth of the state. It takes in the Presidential Range, including Mount Washington (6,288 ft, the highest point in the north-eastern US), and the headwaters of the Connecticut River at the Connecticut Lakes.
• Smallest by area: Strafford County, seat Dover, about 385 square miles between the Piscataqua tidewater and the Lakes Region. Belknap County (Laconia) is the next smallest but includes most of Lake Winnipesaukee.
• Most populous: Hillsborough County, with about 423,000 people in 2020 and both of the state’s largest cities, Manchester and Nashua. Rockingham County (Brentwood), with about 314,000, is second and contains the state’s 18-mile seacoast and Portsmouth.
• Least populous: Coos County, with about 31,000 people — the largest county is also the emptiest, with Berlin, the only city, under 10,000. Carroll County (Ossipee) and Sullivan County (Newport) are the next smallest.
• Oldest and newest: Rockingham, Strafford, Hillsborough, Cheshire and Grafton, all of 1769, are the oldest. Belknap and Carroll, created on the same day in 1840, are the newest. New Hampshire has no independent cities.

Reading the map

Press Streets and zoom in on the highlighted state to see county lines. The Connecticut River forms the entire western edge of Coos, Grafton, Sullivan and Cheshire counties against Vermont; the boundary is the low-water mark on the Vermont bank, so the river itself belongs to New Hampshire. The Merrimack River runs south through Merrimack and Hillsborough counties, past Concord, Manchester and Nashua, and the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers that form it drain Grafton and Belknap counties. The short Atlantic coast lies entirely in Rockingham County, with Portsmouth at the mouth of the Piscataqua on the Maine line. The White Mountain National Forest covers much of Grafton, Carroll and Coos counties, and the Appalachian Trail crosses all three.

Related maps

• New Hampshire map — cities, borders and geography.
• Blank New Hampshire map and printable New Hampshire map.
• Concord, the state capital, in Merrimack County.
• Neighbouring county maps: Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts.
• New England · the Northeast · Eastern Time Zone.
• Geography: Appalachian Mountains, state high points, US coastlines.
• All US county maps.