# How many elected public officials are there in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068 "2009-07-06T13:29:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/21 "2009-07-07T16:51:55Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Actually, Texas, with 254 counties, has Georgia beat – but by the # counties/land area criterion, Georgia would be in the lead, since Texas is so much larger in area. Actually, Kentucky with 120 counties beats Georgia. Texas = 268,820 sq.mi./254 counties = 1058 sq. miles per county. Georgia = 59,425 sq.mi./159 counties = 373 sq. miles per county. Kentucky = 40,409 sq.mi./120 counties = 336 sq. miles per county. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/22 "2009-07-07T19:57:28Z")
> [@NicePete](#): > > Actually, Kentucky with 120 counties beats Georgia. > > Texas = 268,820 sq.mi./254 counties = 1058 sq. miles per county. > > Georgia = 59,425 sq.mi./159 counties = 373 sq. miles per county. > > Kentucky = 40,409 sq.mi./120 counties = 336 sq. miles per county. Well, this proves my point. Here are three states with 533 counties between them. If each county has only 15 elected officials , that’s nearly 8,000 right there! ---
**Author:** ![Concerned\_American\_Citizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Concerned\_American\_Citizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Concerned_American_Citizen)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/23 "2010-09-20T22:54:42Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > My guess is that the writer was counting up all of the elected officials in the United States not just those in the national government. So we have Governors, Lieutenant Governors, State Senators and Representatives and Assemblymen and Delegates. Plus some states have other elected officials like Attorney Generals or Comptrollers. And then there’s local officials elected at the level of counties, cities, towns, villages, etc. > > You’re vastly underestimating the number of municipal jurisdictions in the US, I think. In New York alone, there are 62 counties and nearly 1000 towns and cities. Within the towns, there are nearly 3000 incorporated villages. Every one of those counties, cities, towns and villages has some form of elected government, depending on which kind of charter they have. Most villages have a mayor at the very least, and may have a village council. Every town has a town board and some have elected supervisors. All counties (except for those in NYC) have a county executive or county legislature. They also all have elected district attorneys. Every city has a mayor and district-based city council. > > Then there are elected school boards, elected utility district boards of various types, elected library boards in some places, elected sheriffs, elected local and state judges (tons of those in NY) and finally, there’s the annual election of the Princess of the Mermaids on Coney Island. > > It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 20,000 elected officials in New York. With 50 states, most of them less populous than New York, 500,000 seems a rather reasonable estimate. Well I am not sure where you get your information from but according to the US Census count of of 2000 they counted 25,375 places in 2000. this includes 9 different types of places. I found this by doing a search for the number of cities in the US on goggle no i have not checked the information against anything but I plan to. the point is according to the census of 2000 there were only 3000 or so villages in the whole of the US. I am suspicious of this and all of these numbers of course but I thought you would interested in seeing this. There is a zip file on the site i was looking at of the 2000 census you can get to it by going to this link. [http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=509183](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=509183) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/24 "2010-09-20T23:05:59Z")
> [@Concerned\_American\_Citizen](#): > > Well I am not sure where you get your information from but according to the US Census count of of 2000 they counted 25,375 places in 2000. this includes 9 different types of places. > > I found this by doing a search for the number of cities in the US on goggle no i have not checked the information against anything but I plan to. the point is according to the census of 2000 there were only 3000 or so villages in the whole of the US. I am suspicious of this and all of these numbers of course but I thought you would interested in seeing this. > > There is a zip file on the site i was looking at of the 2000 census you can get to it by going to this link. > > [http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=509183](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=509183) The US Census considers New York-style incorporated villages to be “incorporated places,” of which they count 25,375 in the whole country. (If you look at [the list](http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/places2k.html), you’ll find your favorite New York village there.) Remember that every state and the federal government defines a lot of these terms differently. The Census does their best to try to work with some kind of standardized definition of what a “place” is, but it’s difficult. There are all sorts of unincorporated “census-designated places” that may not even be recognized by the state they’re in, as well. ETA: Although I’m not sure where I got the figure of 3000 villages in New York (that post is a few years old.) Upon checking today, it looks like there are 553 villages incorporated. The 3000 number may include unincorporated hamlets. ---
**Author:** ![Concerned\_American\_Citizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Concerned\_American\_Citizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Concerned_American_Citizen)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/25 "2010-09-20T23:08:36Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > > [@NicePete](#): > > > > Actually, Kentucky with 120 counties beats Georgia. > > > > Texas = 268,820 sq.mi./254 counties = 1058 sq. miles per county. > > > > Georgia = 59,425 sq.mi./159 counties = 373 sq. miles per county. > > > > Kentucky = 40,409 sq.mi./120 counties = 336 sq. miles per county. > > Well, this proves my point. Here are three states with 533 counties between them. If each county has only 15 elected officials , that’s nearly 8,000 right there! There are 3143 counties in the US. That means that there would be 47,245 by your way of thinking in the US. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/26 "2010-09-21T23:09:52Z")
How many elected public official zombies are there in the US? And can anyone tell the difference between those and the non-zombies? ---
**Author:** ![malford6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@malford6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malford6)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/27 "2012-04-25T01:59:55Z")
It is hard to believe that we have 500,000 elected officials in our country with all the budget cuts going on. If we “cut” just $20 a week from each of our elected officials that would be $2,000,000 a week, and $52,000,000.00 a year saved from our budget. Then imagine if we took $50.00 a week. That would be $130,000,000.00 saved. Now that is a great budget cut. See if our politicians would even consider that one. That is not a lot in the big picture, but with the government cutting budgets for rape crisis centers, Medicare, and so many other “necessary” offices, it seems that the cutting should begin with those making the cuts. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/28 "2012-04-25T02:06:47Z")
> [@malford6](#): > > It is hard to believe that we have 500,000 elected officials in our country with all the budget cuts going on. If we “cut” just $20 a week from each of our elected officials that would be $2,000,000 a week, and $52,000,000.00 a year saved from our budget. Then imagine if we took $50.00 a week. That would be $130,000,000.00 saved. Now that is a great budget cut. See if our politicians would even consider that one. That is not a lot in the big picture, but with the government cutting budgets for rape crisis centers, Medicare, and so many other “necessary” offices, it seems that the cutting should begin with those making the cuts. Cool beans. Guess you forgot that a great many elected officials aren’t paid at all. Judging by the date of the OP and your join date you probably won’t be reading this anyway. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/29 "2012-04-25T02:08:35Z")
Most elected officials aren’t paid anything. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/30 "2012-04-25T02:18:51Z")
Besides which, 130 million is a tiny, tiny budget cut, so small as to be lost in the noise. Come up with a thousand more ideas like that, implement them all, and then we’re starting to see some effect. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/31 "2012-04-25T02:20:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m willing to count somebody like the President who’s elected by delegates but not offices like House Speakers or Majority Leaders or Committe Chairmen that are elected by other elected officials. I wonder if the OP realizes that the House Speaker and Majority Leaders and Committee Chairmen were elected to be Senators and Congressmen prior to getting those other positions. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/32 "2012-04-25T02:22:50Z")
> [@malford6](#): > > That would be $130,000,000.00 saved. Now that is a great budget cut. No, it is not. Well, for a small town it would be a great budget cut. But 130 million is almost nothing to the Feds, and you’d actually be spreading it out over the Feds, the States, and everything lower too. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/33 "2012-04-25T02:30:55Z")
Yup. [Total government spending](http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SNA_TABLE11) in the U.S. (local, state, and federal) is over $6.1 trillion. So cutting $130 million from total government spending amounts to a cut of around 0.002%. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/34 "2012-04-25T02:40:35Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > I wonder if the OP realizes that the House Speaker and Majority Leaders and Committee Chairmen were elected to be Senators and Congressmen prior to getting those other positions. Yes, he realizes this. It’s been almost three years. Has anyone actually read my original post yet? I never disputed that there were around 500,000 elected officials in the United States. I said I didn’t believe there were 500,000 elected officials in the United States government. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/35 "2012-04-25T03:03:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Yes, he realizes this. > > It’s been almost three years. Has anyone actually read my original post yet? > > I never disputed that there were around 500,000 elected officials in the United States. I said I didn’t believe there were 500,000 elected officials in the United States government. Why yes, someone has. > [@TBG](#): > > Unless they somehow specified US federal government, I think you’re being overly nitpicky with the writer. Mayor of West Bumblefrick, Montana may not be part of the US federal govt, but would still be a government official in the US. (Assuming it was an actual city and not something I just made up, anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/36 "2012-04-25T03:56:50Z")
> [@malford6](#): > > It is hard to believe that we have 500,000 elected officials in our country with all the budget cuts going on. If we “cut” just $20 a week from each of our elected officials that would be $2,000,000 a week, and $52,000,000.00 a year saved from our budget. Then imagine if we took $50.00 a week. That would be $130,000,000.00 saved. Now that is a great budget cut. See if our politicians would even consider that one. That is not a lot in the big picture, but with the government cutting budgets for rape crisis centers, Medicare, and so many other “necessary” offices, it seems that the cutting should begin with those making the cuts. I love the way you ignore the fact that elected officials are real people with real families and real responsibilities and real jobs. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/37 "2012-04-25T04:02:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I love the way you ignore the fact that elected officials are real people with real families and real responsibilities and real jobs. They are? Damn, I thought we’d have this unemployment thing licked if we laid them all off. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/38 "2012-04-25T04:52:18Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Why yes, someone has. Except that this was specifically about the federal government and not state and local governments. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/39 "2012-04-25T04:58:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I love the way you ignore the fact that elected officials are real people with real families and real responsibilities and real jobs. I’m more impressed by the fact that he feels the government should reduce employee salaries instead of cutting funding for rape crisis centers and such. What exactly does he think these offices do? It’s public service - the employees are the service. The budget is pretty much salaries and office supplies. And he’s apparently arguing we shouldn’t cut back on the office supplies. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068/40 "2012-04-25T05:06:30Z")
nm [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-elected-public-officials-are-there-in-the-us/502068.md?page=3)