A state’s property records can sit mostly in a few counties or be spread thinly across many. This report measures that for each state in the October 2026 edition of the county index, using two simple figures: the share of the state’s records held by its single largest county, and the share held by its 5 largest counties together.
The second figure is the main ranking. It only means something where a state has more than 5 counties, so 47 states are ranked in Table 1, and the 4 jurisdictions with 5 or fewer, where the top 5 are the whole state by definition, are listed separately in Table 2. Among the ranked states, the five largest counties hold the most in Nevada, 92.4% of the state’s records, and the least in North Carolina, 27.9%.
- States ranked (over 5 counties)
- 47
- Median top-5 share
- 45.8%
- Top 5 hold half or more
- 18
- Top 5 hold under a quarter
- 0
| Rank | State | Counties | Largest county | Top 5 | Even split | × even | For half |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | 17 | 67.8% | 92.4% | 29.4% | 3.1 | 1 |
| 2 | Alaska | 30 | 31.6% | 90.0% | 16.7% | 5.4 | 2 |
| 3 | Connecticut | 8 | 24.4% | 86.7% | 62.5% | 1.4 | 3 |
| 4 | Arizona | 15 | 53.9% | 86.2% | 33.3% | 2.6 | 1 |
| 5 | Utah | 29 | 32.4% | 74.9% | 17.2% | 4.3 | 2 |
| 6 | New Hampshire | 10 | 23.6% | 72.5% | 50.0% | 1.4 | 3 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | 14 | 21.1% | 62.5% | 35.7% | 1.8 | 4 |
| 8 | Maryland | 24 | 14.9% | 60.5% | 20.8% | 2.9 | 4 |
| 9 | Washington | 39 | 24.3% | 59.3% | 12.8% | 4.6 | 4 |
| 10 | New Mexico | 33 | 27.7% | 59.0% | 15.2% | 3.9 | 4 |
| 11 | Maine | 16 | 18.6% | 58.6% | 31.3% | 1.9 | 4 |
| 12 | North Dakota | 53 | 21.5% | 57.7% | 9.4% | 6.1 | 4 |
| 13 | Vermont | 14 | 18.7% | 57.3% | 35.7% | 1.6 | 5 |
| 14 | Illinois | 102 | 36.4% | 57.2% | 4.9% | 11.7 | 4 |
| 15 | Idaho | 44 | 25.8% | 57.2% | 11.4% | 5.0 | 4 |
| 16 | Nebraska | 93 | 26.3% | 54.1% | 5.4% | 10.1 | 4 |
| 17 | Oregon | 36 | 17.0% | 53.8% | 13.9% | 3.9 | 5 |
| 18 | Montana | 56 | 13.5% | 51.4% | 8.9% | 5.8 | 5 |
| 19 | California | 58 | 20.0% | 48.6% | 8.6% | 5.6 | 6 |
| 20 | Wyoming | 23 | 15.1% | 47.9% | 21.7% | 2.2 | 6 |
| 21 | Oklahoma | 77 | 18.6% | 47.4% | 6.5% | 7.3 | 7 |
| 22 | South Dakota | 66 | 18.9% | 46.7% | 7.6% | 6.2 | 6 |
| 23 | Colorado | 64 | 11.3% | 46.4% | 7.8% | 5.9 | 6 |
| 24 | Kansas | 105 | 16.4% | 45.8% | 4.8% | 9.6 | 7 |
| 25 | Michigan | 83 | 18.0% | 44.9% | 6.0% | 7.5 | 7 |
| 26 | Minnesota | 87 | 18.6% | 42.6% | 5.7% | 7.4 | 8 |
| 27 | Alabama | 67 | 14.7% | 41.5% | 7.5% | 5.6 | 8 |
| 28 | Missouri | 115 | 15.0% | 41.4% | 4.3% | 9.5 | 8 |
| 29 | New Jersey | 21 | 9.1% | 40.1% | 23.8% | 1.7 | 7 |
| 30 | New York | 62 | 9.2% | 39.3% | 8.1% | 4.9 | 8 |
| 31 | South Carolina | 46 | 8.9% | 37.9% | 10.9% | 3.5 | 8 |
| 32 | Louisiana | 64 | 8.5% | 36.7% | 7.8% | 4.7 | 8 |
| 33 | Tennessee | 95 | 11.0% | 35.6% | 5.3% | 6.8 | 11 |
| 34 | Texas | 254 | 12.8% | 35.2% | 2.0% | 17.9 | 11 |
| 35 | Pennsylvania | 67 | 11.3% | 34.9% | 7.5% | 4.7 | 10 |
| 36 | Arkansas | 75 | 11.2% | 34.8% | 6.7% | 5.2 | 11 |
| 37 | Ohio | 88 | 10.0% | 34.6% | 5.7% | 6.1 | 11 |
| 38 | Indiana | 92 | 11.5% | 33.7% | 5.4% | 6.2 | 13 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 72 | 12.5% | 33.5% | 6.9% | 4.8 | 12 |
| 40 | Florida | 67 | 8.8% | 33.0% | 7.5% | 4.4 | 10 |
| 41 | Iowa | 99 | 12.6% | 32.2% | 5.1% | 6.4 | 13 |
| 42 | West Virginia | 55 | 10.8% | 32.2% | 9.1% | 3.5 | 11 |
| 43 | Mississippi | 82 | 7.8% | 31.4% | 6.1% | 5.2 | 13 |
| 44 | Kentucky | 120 | 15.7% | 30.1% | 4.2% | 7.2 | 17 |
| 45 | Georgia | 159 | 8.1% | 30.0% | 3.1% | 9.5 | 16 |
| 46 | Virginia | 133 | 11.2% | 29.6% | 3.8% | 7.9 | 15 |
| 47 | North Carolina | 100 | 9.1% | 27.9% | 5.0% | 5.6 | 16 |
Source: county index. States with more than 5 counties, ordered by top-5 share. “Even split” is the share 5 counties would hold if every county in the state had the same number of records; “× even” is the top-5 share divided by it. “For half” is how many counties, largest first, it takes to reach half of the state’s records.
The most and least concentrated states
In 18 of the 47 ranked states, the five largest counties hold at least half of all property records: led by Nevada, Alaska and Connecticut. Every ranked state has at least a quarter of its records in its five largest counties. The median ranked state has 45.8% of its records in its top 5.
These shares describe how property is distributed within a state, not how much there is. A state can be highly concentrated and small, or spread out and large. To compare the totals themselves, see property records by state.
Allowing for the number of counties
A raw top-5 share favours states with few counties: where there are only a few more than 5, the top 5 are most of the state almost automatically. The “even split” column corrects for that. It shows what the top 5 would hold if every county in the state were the same size, and “× even” shows how many times that benchmark the actual share is. A value near 1 means the largest counties are not much bigger than the rest; a high value means records are packed into a few counties despite a long county list.
On this measure Texas is the most concentrated state: its five largest counties hold 17.9 times the share an even split would give them. The order differs from Table 1 because a state with many counties can have a modest top-5 share that is still far above its own even split.
The leader and the next four
The top-5 share can be divided into the largest county and the four after it. In 4 of the 47 ranked states the largest county on its own holds at least as much as the next four together, so the state’s concentration is mostly one file. The next four add the most in Connecticut, 62.3% of the state’s records on top of the leader’s 24.4%, and the least in Kentucky, 14.4%.
Counties needed for half
A third way to read concentration is to count. Taking counties largest first, the last column of Table 1 shows how many it takes to reach half of each state’s records. In Nevada and Arizona, one county is enough. The most is 17, in Kentucky, where reaching half the state takes 14.2% of its 120 counties.
States with 5 counties or fewer
In these jurisdictions the top 5 covers everything, so Table 2 shows only the largest county’s share. Where there is a single county-level area, that share is 100%.
| State | Counties | Largest county | Its share |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 1 | District of Columbia County | 100.0% |
| Hawaii | 4 | Honolulu County | 58.5% |
| Rhode Island | 5 | Providence County | 50.5% |
| Delaware | 3 | New Castle County | 45.3% |
Concentration and the five-county bundle
The top-5 share is also a practical number here, because the five-county bundle takes any 5 counties for $49/mo. In a concentrated state, one bundle of the largest files reaches most of the state’s records. In a spread-out state the same bundle reaches a smaller part, and a buyer who wants broad coverage will need more files, while a buyer with one local market can take just the counties that matter, at $19/mo each. Which counties those are is listed on each state page, and the largest county in every state names the file at the top of each list.
Method
Counties are ranked within each state by property records in the October 2026 edition, with ties broken by name. The largest-county share is the first county’s records divided by the state total; the top-5 share adds the first 5. The even-split benchmark is 5 divided by the state’s number of counties. Figures are recalculated daily from the county index, so the ranking follows each monthly edition.
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