County area (Canada)

All twelve provinces of the Canadian Republic have counties, which function as the upper tier of a two-tiered system of local government which is the norm across the more populated areas of the country. However, nine provinces have large regions which are not covered by any county; these regions are known as district areas, and instead consist of several regional districts and municipal districts, which never overlap, meaning the system of local government in district areas is single-tiered.

As such, the term county area refers to an area of a province which possesses counties, many of which may include unincorporated communities which rely entirely on the county for local government services, but all of which have at least a handful of incorporated municipalities which form the lower tier of local government within the jurisdictional area of the county. For example, the Lower Mainland is a county area (as well as a ceremonial county), which consists of seven counties, each of which have several incorporated municipalities with their own mayors and municipal councils and of course relevant civic elections. Most municipalities use the mayor-council form of government, while counties use the council-manager form. The provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Vancouver Island consist only of counties, and thus can be said to each consist of a single county area.

All counties in Canada are policed by what is known as a county constabulary; many actually retain the term "constabulary" in their title such as the Royal Esquimalt Constabulary of Esquimalt County, Vancouver Island, but more go by "county police department" or "county police service", such as the Middlesex County Police Service, which polices all of Middlesex County, Ontario, including its county seat and most populous municipality of London.