Founded in 1819 and organized the following year,[1][6] Oakland County is composed of 62 cities, villages, and townships.

By 1840, Oakland had more than fifty lumber mills, processing wood harvested from the region and the Upper Peninsula.

After the Civil War, Oakland was still primarily a rural, agricultural county with numerous isolated villages.

By the end of the 19th century, three rail lines served Pontiac, and the city attracted carriage and wagon factories.

[citation needed] At that time, developers made southern Oakland County a suburb of Detroit; a Cincinnati firm platted a section of Royal Oak called "Urbanrest".

Several thousand people moved from Oakland County farms to Detroit as the city attracted factories.

Oakland County itself is a prime example of the land policy that was established, as all townships are equal in size (save for slight variations due to waterways).

Since the late 20th century, the patterns of de facto segregation have faded as the suburbs have become more diverse.

Middle-class African Americans have left Detroit, settling in inner-ring suburbs, notably Southfield (where the population is 75% Black), west of Woodward Avenue.

About 8.72% of the population were below the poverty line.The county government operates the major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records, administers public health regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and other social services.

The county board of commissioners controls the budget but has limited authority to make laws or ordinances.

[23] In Michigan, most local government functions—police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc.—are the responsibility of individual cities and townships.

[24] The east campus (in Pontiac) consists mostly of the courthouse, jail, and Sheriff's Office, while the west campus (in Waterford) contains the county executive's office, Children's Village (the county's juvenile detention center), and the headquarters of Oakland Schools, the Road Commission, and a number of other departments.

[25][26] In May 2023, the county government announced a plan to relocate select offices from the Service Center back to downtown Pontiac.

[35] Oakland County was historically a bastion of suburban conservatism, and was hence a longstanding stronghold of the Republican Party.

In 1996, Bill Clinton became the first Democrat to carry Oakland County since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and only the fourth to do so since 1892.

Al Gore and John Kerry also carried the county, by narrow margins of less than 7,000 and 3,000 votes respectively, against George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, respectively.

[37] In the 118th Congress, Oakland County is represented by four Democrats: Debbie Dingell (6th), Elissa Slotkin (7th), Haley Stevens (11th), and Rashida Tlaib (12th) and two Republicans: John James (10th) and Lisa McClain (9th).

Surface-street navigation in metro Detroit is commonly anchored by "mile roads", major east–west surface streets that are spaced at one-mile (1.6 km) intervals and increment as one travels north and away from the city center.

As a result, some communities have designated sidepaths (locally called "safety paths") as bike routes which do not meet the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) guidelines for bicycling facilities and have been found to be less safe than on-road bike facilities.

Only the city of Ferndale has a built comprehensive bicycle network of bike lanes and signed shared roadways.