So, do New England states not have counties? I often see references in demography to the issue of compiling townships and what not into county-like groupings or something. What gives? 
While I’m at it, is there any legal, policy or other difference (e.g., traditionally if not currently) being pointed out if a state calls itself a Commonwealth?
All New England states have counties. However, Massachusetts have counties in name only. There is no county government and Norfolk county consists of towns scattered in the eastern part of the state that sometimes aren’t even close to one another. The New England states are tiny so maybe need to group them differently than they would other states.
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are labeled as commonwealths. The meaning of this has been discussed several times here and it can basically be summarized as “the are states with a fancier title”. There is no legal difference between being called a state and a commonwealth. The U.S. does have some real commonwealths like Puerto Rico however.
Connecticut and Rhode Island no longer have county governments either, although they’re retained by the state as judicial districts. There are no townships either, in the sense that they exist in the rest of the US, as every square inch of New England is in either a city or a town, with no unincorporated land.
I think Connecticut eliminated the county sheriffs a few years ago, so the judicial districts may be the only vestige of county government left in the state.
Every state in New England has counties, but counties are by and large afterthoughts. In CT, counties have no independent government functions, and are merely geographical conveniences. In MA, counties provide a Sherriff, who is mostly responsible for prisons and courtroom security - no general law enforcement powers. Counties in RI, ME, VT, and NH are similar, with slightly greater or lesser powers. No state uses counties such as they are in many parts of the country, where there is a definite county government that has broad municipal-type powers over unincorporated areas. This is probably because there are no unincorporated areas in most of NE (with the exception of ME) - each city or town directly abuts the next.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (and Virginia, come to that) is a state just as any other and is no different from any of the other 49 in regards to constitutional, legal, or organizational definition. The name derives from the Commonwealth of England (1649-1660), the government of the UK when it was briefly neither united nor a kingdom.
I’ll second this…
In New England, they are often used for court “boundaries” as well.
If you commit a crime in Essex county (north shore of Boston), you are tried in an Essex County courthouse, by the state. Commit it in Middlesex County, you go to…
If your judgement is go to a Jail (vs Prison) you are handled by that county’s corrections office, same goes for probation type offences.
Most of them in MA/NH make sense when you look at a map of them… except Norfolk.
Records for real estate are registered by the counties as well, in most cases.
-butler
Even so, in MA the operations that have “County” in their names are all run by the Commonwealth. The election of sheriffs by county is vestigial.
Norfolk County, MA used to be contiguous until Newton and Hingham decided to switch to Middlesex and Plymouth Counties. That left Cohasset and Brookline cut off. I’ve been told that Brookline has made efforts in the past to stay in a different county than Boston as one defense against annexation of their lovely tax base.