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Indiana Civics: How Your State Government WorksLesson 5 of 10

5 · Local government in Indiana: 92 counties and 1,000+ townships

Indiana's local government has a shape you won't find in every state; most notably, it still runs on a dense layer of townships, which many states have dropped.

Counties: 92 of them. Indiana is divided into 92 counties, and every square foot of the state is inside one. A typical Indiana county is run by two elected bodies working together (Indiana General Assembly, n.d.; National Association of Counties, n.d.):

  • A Board of Commissioners (usually three members): the county's executive, handling day-to-day administration, roads, and the like.
  • A County Council (usually seven members): the county's fiscal body, which controls the budget and sets tax levies. Splitting executive and fiscal power between two elected boards is itself an Indiana characteristic.

Townships: over 1,000 active ones. Indiana keeps a township layer that many states abolished. There are roughly 1,008 active townships, and, a distinctive fact, every acre of Indiana lies within a township; there are no gaps. Each township is run by an elected Township Trustee and a small Township Board. Historically townships handled things like township assistance (local poor relief), some fire protection in unincorporated areas, and property-related duties (Indiana General Assembly, n.d.).

⚠️ Time-sensitive / varies: confirm the current setup. The exact count of active townships and the precise duties they still perform have been the subject of ongoing reform debate and can shift. Treat "≈1,008 townships" as an authored-time figure and confirm the current number and duties with the state (Indiana Code Title 36 at iga.in.gov and in.gov), not a fixed textbook number.

Cities and towns. On top of counties and townships, Indiana has incorporated cities (with a mayor and council) and towns (usually a town council), which run municipal services where people are more densely settled.

The practical payoff is the same as everywhere: who provides your service depends on where you live: it might be your city, your county, or your township. Indiana's township layer just gives it one more box than many states have.

Check yourself

How many counties does Indiana have, what are the two elected county bodies and what does each control, and what local layer does Indiana keep that many states have dropped?

Sources

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