Definition of County seat

A county seat is a term for an administrative center for a county, primarily used in the United States. In the Northeast United States, the statutory term often is shire town, but colloquially county seat is the term in use there. Parts of Canadian Maritimes also use the term shire town. In England, Wales and Ireland, the term county town is used. This term is still sometimes used colloquially in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but today neither are divided into administrative counties – instead being divided, respectively, into council areas and districts.  Louisiana uses parishes instead of counties, and the administrative center is a "parish seat." Alaska is organized into "boroughs," which are large districts, and the administrative center is known as a "borough seat." Boroughs typically provide fewer local services than most counties, as the state government provides more services directly. About half of Alaska is part of the Unorganized Borough, a discontinuous region the state government administers directly. Some of Alaska's boroughs share geographical and administrative boundaries with cities; these are known as unified city-boroughs and result in some of Alaska's cities ranking among the geographically largest cities in the world. The Canadian province of Ontario, in addition to counties, also has districts and regional municipalities, which are effectively different types of counties in that they perform county government functions, albeit at limited (district) or expanded (regional municipality) levels.