The United States has a national government as well as state and local governments. This table shows changes in the number of governments at each level since 1942. The first row labels years, local governments, state governments, the U.S. national government, and the total number of governments. Local governments are divided into five types in the next columns, and the last column of local government sums the total number of local governments. In total, the number of governments of all types significantly decreased from 1942 to 1977 (due chiefly to school district consolidations), and slightly increased in the years since 1977.