Most of the people here might think USA has a simple classification of local administration: i. e. state-county-city.
Actually this is an oversimplication. USA has a very complicate organization of local governments, although still much simpler than China.
USA currently has 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Except for Alaska and Lousiana, all other states in USA are divided into counties. Alaska has boroughs, whereas Lousiana has parrishes, which are equivalent to the counties of other states.
Not all counties(including boroughs and parrishes mentioned above) actually have governments, though:
1. Some countie are designated as city-counties and basically their governments serve as a city governments:
Alaska: City and Borough of Anchorage, City and Borough of Juneau, City and Borough of Sitka, and City and Borough of Yakutat;
California: City and County of San Francisco;
Colorado: City and County of Broomfield, and City and County of Denver;
Hawaii: City and County of Honolulu;
Kansas: Unified Government of Wyandotte County and City of Kansas City;
Montana: Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, and Butte-Silver Bow County
2. Some counties are consolidated with cities and their governments serve as a city governments (classified as metropolitan governments).
Tennessee: Hartsville-Trousdale County, Lynchburg-Moore County, and Nashville-Davidson County.
3. Some counties have governments as part of another government.
Florida: County of Duval (City of Jacksonville);
Georgia: County of Clarke (City of Athens), County of Muscogee (City of Columbus), County of Richmond (City of Augusta);
Hawaii: County of Kalawao (State of Hawaii);
Indiana: County of Marion (City of Indianapolis);
Kentucky: Lexington-Fayette Urban County
Lousiana: Parrish of East Baton Rouge (City of Baton Rouge), Parrish of Lafayette (City of Lafayette), Parrish of Orleans (City of New Orleans), and Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government;
Massachusetts: County of Nantucket (Town of Nantucket), and County of Suffolk (City of Boston);
New York: Counties of Bronx, Kings, Queens, Richmond and New York (Borroughs of Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan, all parts of New York City);
Pennsylvania: County of Philadelphia (City of Philadelphia).
4. Counted as a county but actually a city and a District (equal to a state) is Washington City (the District of Columbia).
5. Cities located outside of any county or the its equivalent:
Maryland: Baltimore City
Missouri: St. Louis City
Nevada: Carson City
Virginia: all independent cities in Virginia, i. e. Alexandria, Bedford, Bristol, Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Colonial Heights, Covington, Danville, Emporia, Fairfax, Falls Church, Franklin, Fredericksburg, Galax, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Hopewell, Lexington, Lynchburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Martinville, Newport News, Norfolk, Norton, Petersburg, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Radford, Richmond, Roanoke, Salem, Staunton, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Waynesboro, Williamsburg, and Winchester.
6. Although geographically the counties exist, but no functional county government.
Connecticut: Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, and Windlam.
Massachusetts: Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, and Worcester.
Rhode Island: Bristol, Kent, Newport, Providence, and Washington.
7. Certain areas in Alaska are designated as counties in census, but no organized county government there.
Alaska: Aleutians West, Bethel, Dillingham, Nome, Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan, Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon, Southeast Fairbanks, Valdez-Cordova, Wade Hampton, Wrangall-Paterson, and Yukon-Kayukuk.
Because of this, about 10% of the whole American population lives in area out of any county.
Subcounty governments include municipal governments and township governments.
Municipal governments include cities, boroughs (except for Alaska), towns (Except for Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine) and villages.
The township governments exist in the co-called "township states" (as opposite to the county states):
Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Among these states, the 6 New England States (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine), plus New York and Wisconsin, the township governments are designated as towns, while in some part of Maine and New Hampshire, they care called as plantations and locations, respectively. In all the other township states, the township governments are designated as townships.
Some of the townships are absorbed by cities and no longer serve as a local government. Some of the townships lack the government altogether. Also in Iowa, the townships are subdivision of the county governments, not independent governments.