How to Read the Census Government Organization Report — Counting Local Governments, Special Districts and School Systems

As of 6 November 2026, 01:00 KST (retrieved by this page at that time); latest Government Organization Summary Report listed by the Census Bureau: Government Organization Summary Report: 2022 and 2025 (E22-COG), released May 2026 (web page last revised June 11, 2026). This report covers 2022 and 2025: it compares the 2022 Census of Governments with 2025 counts from the Bureau's annual Government Organization series, so the table below has no year-ago comparison. Separately, the Census Bureau released 2026 Annual Government Organization counts on September 24, 2026, as three tables and a public use file; that is a different product, its press release prints no totals, and this page has not read the 2026 tables. Primary source: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2025/econ/govtorg2225.pdf^[1][2][4]

Comparison basis: counts are whole numbers of government units as printed in Table 1, not rounded; the changes are this page's subtractions. The table's subtotals add exactly to its totals in both years (this page's check). Counts are net: a change of +601 does not say how many units were created or dissolved.^[1]

In three lines

1. This Census report counts U.S. local governments by type: counties, municipalities, townships, school districts and special districts.
2. The total rose from 90,837 in the 2022 Census of Governments to 91,438 in 2025.
3. Special district governments rose by 644 to 40,199, while general-purpose governments fell by 32 (this page's subtractions).^[1]

Census year and annual series. "The Census of Governments (CoG) is conducted every 5 years (years ending in “2” and “7”) to collect information about state and local governments." "Beginning in September 2025, the Census Bureau began publishing an annual Government Organization series of data tables in addition to the 11 tables published after every CoG." The 2022 figures therefore come from a census of governments, and the 2025 figures from the annual series; the report does not describe the 2025 counts as a sample. Its maps show the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the cited pages do not mention territories.^[1]

What "total local governments" is not. The total counts local units only; it is not a count of all governments, since the 50 state governments are not among the five local types, and it is not a count of all school systems: "Dependent school systems are classified as agencies of other governments (state, county, municipal, town, or township) and are not counted as separate governments in Census Bureau statistics."^[1]

The report's own explanation. "In 2025, the total number of local governments increased to 91,438." "The change was attributed to an increase in the number of special district governments in four states: Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, and Texas." This is the Census Bureau's attribution, quoted here.^[1]

Text vs table (this page's comparison of the report's text with its Table 1). The report's text says: "Between 2022 and 2025, the overall change in general-purpose governments was 601 (0.65 percent) (Figure 1)." In Table 1, however, 601 is the change in total local government units (90,837 to 91,438), while general-purpose governments went from 38,736 to 38,704, a change of -32 (this page's subtractions). The 601 equals 0.66% of the 2022 total in this page's calculation, against the 0.65 percent in the text. This page uses the table counts and does not know of any correction by the Census Bureau.^[1]

General-purpose vs special-purpose. General-purpose governments fell by 32 and special-purpose governments rose by 633, of which special districts rose by 644 and independent school districts fell by 11 (this page's subtractions).^[1]

Governments vs school systems. There were 13,859 school systems in 2022 and 13,853 in 2025. The 2025 figure is 12,535 independent school districts plus 1,318 dependent school systems, and only the independent districts are counted as governments; the dependent systems are agencies of other governments.^[1]

Net counts vs identity of units. The report compares totals for two years; the cited pages do not match individual units across the 2022 and 2025 lists, so this page does not say which units were created, dissolved or reclassified.^[1]