Each town is responsible for all local services such as schools, snow removal, sewers, and fire and police departments.

However, in some cases in rural areas, adjoining towns may agree to jointly provide services or even establish a regional school system.

Connecticut's eight historical counties continue to exist in name only, and are no longer considered for statistical purposes.

The act establishing the county states: That the townships of Litchfield, Woodbury, New Milford, Harwinton, New Hartford, Barkhempstead, Hartland, Colebrook, Norfolk, Canaan, Salisbury, Kent, Sharon, Cornwall, Goshen, Torrington, and Winchester, lying in the northwesterly part of this Colony, shall be and remain one entire county, and be called the County of Litchfield, and shall have and exercise the same powers, priviledges [sic] and authorities, and be subject to the same regulations, as the other counties in this Colony by law have and are subject unto.

The final boundary change occurred on October 8, 1807, when the town of Middlebury was established from part of Woodbury.

[6] In 1862, during the Civil War, Litchfield County raised the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of Volunteers Heavy Artillery.

This regiment, originally the 19th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, served in the defense of Washington, D.C. from September 1862 to March 1864, at which time it was transferred to the Army of the Potomac.

On June 1, 1864, the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery fought as infantry (as it continued to do through the war) in the Battle of Cold Harbor, experiencing the heaviest proportionate losses of any Connecticut regiment in the Civil War.

The regiment remained active to the end of the war, and its final mustering out September 5, 1865.

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 189,927 people, 76,640 households, and 51,530 families residing in the county.

[16] In terms of ancestry, 23.0% were Italian, 21.3% were Irish, 14.8% were English, 14.5% were German, 8.3% were Polish, and 3.3% were American.

[19] Data is from the 2010 United States Census and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

"[22] Litchfield County has voted for Republican presidential candidates more often than the rest of the state.

[23] But in 2008, no county in Connecticut, including Litchfield, was won by Republican candidate John McCain.

The geographical Woodbury Telephone Exchange (of the now defunct Woodbury Telephone Company) serves the two towns as well as the town of Southbury, which is in New Haven County and the small part of Roxbury.