The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20151007205101/http://www.census.gov:80/govs/cog/

Census of Governments

Skip top of page navigation
You are here: Census.govBusiness & IndustryFederal, State, & Local Governments › Census of Governments

2012 Census of Governments

The Census of Governments identifies the scope and nature of the nation's state and local government sector; provides authoritative benchmark figures of public finance and public employment; classifies local government organizations, powers, and activities; and measures federal, state, and local fiscal relationships.

The data are available by:

  • level of government (state, local, or state and local combined),
  • type of government (state, county, city, township, special district, school district), and
  • category of governmental activity (more about governmental activities).

Lists & Structure of Governments

2012 Summary Report (PDF, 524KB)


2012 Census of Governments Organization Tables: Final



2012 Individual State Descriptions [PDF, 1,306MB]

  • Explains how each state is organized inot the different types of local governments.
  • Explains how governments' responsibilities and authority vary from state to state, or within a state.       

Link to Lists & Structure of Governments

Click map to view


Government Employment & Payroll

The Employment component was mailed March 2012 to collect information on the number of state and local government civilian employees and their payrolls.


Government Finance

The Finance Component, with the most up to date data on revenues, expenditures, assets, debt, and pensions, was released on December 16, 2014.


[PDF] or PDF denotes a file in Adobe’s Portable Document Format. To view the file, you will need the Adobe® Reader® Off Site available free from Adobe.
[Excel] or the letters [xls] indicate a document is in the Microsoft® Excel® Spreadsheet Format (XLS). To view the file, you will need the Microsoft® Excel® Viewer Off Site available for free from Microsoft®.
This symbol Off Site indicates a link to a non-government web site. Our linking to these sites does not constitute an endorsement of any products, services or the information found on them. Once you link to another site you are subject to the policies of the new site.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Census of Governments | 1(800) 242-2184| govs.cms.inquiry@census.gov |  Last Revised: May 14, 2015