A county island is an unincorporated area, usually, but not always, surrounded on all sides by another incorporated area, such as a city. On maps, county islands will form 'holes' in cities, making them look like uneven pieces of swiss cheese. Generally found more frequently in the western United States, county islands form in areas of expansion when previously smaller cities will annex and incorporate more land into their jurisdiction. If residents or landowners in a particular unincorporated area do not vote to incorporate with the surrounding city, the area remains unincorporated. The formation of a county island usually follows stages where it will come into being on the edge of an incorporated area, and as more territory is incorporated, be cut off from the rest of the unincorporated area within the county. These areas are not, by definition, exclaves because they are simply unincorporated within a surrounding city. In law, a region of land is unincorporated if it is not a part of any municipality. ... Incorporation is: In business, incorporation is the creation of a corporation. ... A city is an urban area, differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status. ... D is Bs exclave, but is not an enclave. ...

Because these patches of land are not incorporated into the city surrounding them, they usually fall under the jurisdiction of the county in which they are located. This can create problems if a county island is itself densely populated; they must rely on the parent county for services such as waste management, fire coverage and protection, as well as police: only county police have jurisdiction within county islands. It is under debate frequently if the surrounding city should provide emergency services to these unincorporated areas. Other problems, such as dumping and other illegal activities that occur in county islands, can prove to be a blight on the surrounding areas. Originally, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (in Great Britain, an earl, though the original earldoms covered larger areas) by reason of that office. ... Waste management is literally the process of managing waste materials (normally those produced as a result of human activities). ... County Police are the police of a county in the United States and in the United Kingdom. ...