Webmaster note: There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania. They are designated in section 201 of the County Code. The newest is Lackawanna, which was created from part of Luzerne in 1878. According to the Constitution of Pennsylvania, no additional counties may be formed without enabling legislation specially advertised in the vicinity of the change and in advance of introduction of any bill in the legislature to make the change. (Article III, section 7)
Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester were the first counties created by William Penn in 1682. Delaware County, which was not established until 1789, now encompasses the area originally settled as Chester County. What today is Chester County was occupied in 1682 only by native Americans. It would be years later before settlers made their way west of the Brandywine Creek into what today is Chester County. Similarly, Montgomery County was originally part of Philadelphia County and itself was separately established only in 1784.
The first area erected as a separate county after the original three was the land in Chester County west of the Octoraro Creek, named Lancaster County and established after half a century in 1749. Cumberland County was erected the following year, 1750, and included all the lands west of the Susquehanna River.
The first county established not due to a natural water boundary was Berks, which was formed in 1752 from parts of Chester, Lancaster, and Philadelphia counties. Northampton also was formed in 1752 to recognize the increased settlement activity in the Lehigh Valley. Boundary disputes still existed in colonial times, however, with Connecticut over the Lehigh Valley region and Virginia over the Allegheny and Ohio valleys.
Over the years as the population moved westward, Bedford (1771), Northumberland (1772), Westmoreland (1773), Washington (1781), and Fayette (1783) counties were formed. During the next hundred years, boundary disputes with other states were resolved and the remaining counties were carved out of what today is Pennsylvania.
Because of differences in the sizes of these counties, however, their needs for officers and authority varied widely. For this reason, notwithstanding the constitutional prohibition of special legislation, the counties were divided by the legislature into eight classes by the act of July 10, 1919 (P.L.887), which division was upheld by the Supreme Court in Comm. v. Wert, 282 Pa. 575, 128 A.484. This classification system today is contained in section 210 of the County Code. It was further specifically authorized on November 6, 1923, by a constitutional amendment: Article III, section 32, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia is the only county classified as first class, while Allegheny is the only county classified as one of the second class. The smallest counties in population are referred to as eighth class counties. [See section 210 of the County Code.] Philadelphia also is the only county without separate county officers. All functions of the county government were transferred to city officers November 6, 1951, by the predecessor section to Article IX, section 13.
The complete Pennsylvania Statutes are not yet available on the web. However, selected portions have been made available and can be accessed by CLICKING HERE. These statutes, though available instantaneously over the web, may not be the current law. Court decisions overturning them, later statutes amending them, and a host of other factors come into play when interpreting them. They are provided here as a resource. They should provide some information about the state of the law. However, a competent lawyer, who from other sources will research the law to insure what is current, should always be employed in matters of importance.