Maryland Counties: History and Information

Find a brief history of Maryland Counties

Maryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east.

This is a list of the twenty-four counties and county-equivalents in the US state of Maryland. Though an independent city rather than a county, the City of Baltimore is considered the equal of a county for most purposes and is a county-equivalent. Many of the counties in Maryland were named for relatives of the Barons Baltimore who were the proprietors of the Maryland colony from its founding in 1634 through 1771. The Barons Baltimore were Catholic, and George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, originally intended that the colony be a haven for English Catholics, though for the majority of its history Maryland has had a majority of Protestants.

The last new county formation in Maryland occurred when Garrett County was formed in 1872 from portions of Allegany County. However, there have been numerous border changes since that time, most recently when portions of the city of Takoma Park that had previously been part of Prince George's County were absorbed into Montgomery County in 1997