New Hampshire Counties Map: Click All 10 Counties

How many counties are in New Hampshire?

New Hampshire has 10 counties. 45 states have more, and 4 have fewer.

New Hampshire has 10 counties. Coos County, the northernmost, is the largest but has the fewest people. Hillsborough County, with Manchester and Nashua, has the most, and Merrimack County holds the capital, Concord.

New Hampshire is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, so its counties get smaller and more crowded as you go south. The Connecticut River forms the western border with Vermont, and the state has only about 18 miles of Atlantic coastline, all in Rockingham County. Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast, rises in Coos County in the White Mountains.

How New Hampshire's counties were formed

New Hampshire's first five counties were created in 1769: Rockingham, Strafford, Hillsborough, Cheshire and Grafton, several named for British officials. Coos County followed in 1803, Merrimack in 1823 and Sullivan in 1827. Belknap and Carroll counties, both created in 1840 around Lake Winnipesaukee, were the last, bringing the count to 10.

New Hampshire regions and the counties in each

New Hampshire has seven tourism regions that line up with its counties. The Great North Woods is Coos County. The White Mountains cover Grafton and northern Carroll counties. The Lakes Region is Belknap and southern Carroll around Lake Winnipesaukee. The Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee region is Sullivan and southern Grafton along the Connecticut River. The Monadnock region is Cheshire County, the Merrimack Valley is Merrimack and Hillsborough, and the Seacoast is Rockingham and Strafford.

Notable places on the New Hampshire county map

Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast at 6,288 feet, is in Coos County, and its summit weather station once recorded a wind gust of 231 miles per hour. Franconia Notch State Park is in Grafton County, Lake Winnipesaukee is in Belknap and Carroll counties, and Portsmouth, the state's only seaport, is in Rockingham County. New Hampshire holds the first presidential primary every four years, so town halls across Hillsborough and Rockingham counties fill with candidates.

New Hampshire counties map: the biggest and smallest

Coos County is the largest county in New Hampshire, with 1,795 square miles of land, about 20% of the state. That's more land than the whole state of Rhode Island. Strafford County is the smallest, at 368 square miles.

The smallest counties by land area are Strafford County (368 sq mi), Belknap County (402 sq mi) and Sullivan County (538 sq mi).

Which counties in New Hampshire have the most people?

Hillsborough County has the most people, about 430,462 in the Census Bureau's July 2024 estimate, or 31% of everyone in New Hampshire. The three biggest counties together hold 65% of the state's 1,409,032 people. Coos County has the fewest, about 31,094.

The most crowded is Hillsborough County, with about 491 people per square mile. The emptiest is Coos County, with about 17 people per square mile. Comparing the two is a quick way to show children that a big county on the map isn't always a big county in people.

What county is Concord in?

Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, is in Merrimack County. Merrimack County ranks 3rd of 10 by population. New Hampshire is called the Granite State, and it became the 9th state in 1788.

Counties on the New Hampshire border

Learning the edge of the map first gives children a frame to fill in. New Hampshire shares a border with Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont.

How New Hampshire's counties compare with other states

New Hampshire ranks 44th among the 50 states in land area and 41st in population. Its average county covers about 895 square miles and holds about 140,903 people. Across the 50 states, the average county-level area covers about 1,139 square miles and holds about 109,381 people, so New Hampshire's counties are smaller than usual in size. Small counties pack more names into the same space, so zooming in helps.

Landmarks for learning the counties of New Hampshire

• Coos County fills the northern tip, with the White Mountains on its southern edge.
• Rockingham County holds the short Atlantic coastline.
• Hillsborough County borders Massachusetts in the south-central part of the state.

With 10 counties, you can take on the whole map at once in a Practice round. Then print the New Hampshire county map worksheet to check that it sticks on paper.

All 10 New Hampshire counties

Every county on the map, A to Z, with its land area and July 2024 population estimate.

New Hampshire geography for homeschoolers

Pair this map with the Northeast states and capitals quiz and the US states quiz. If you teach at home, see new hampshire homeschool laws, and check nh efa to see whether a program may help pay for New Hampshire history and geography curriculum. Each program decides what it covers.