 These cities are no longer county seats, since the counties ceased to exist once the cities were completely formed, but are functionally equivalent to counties.Also in Virginia, a county seat may be an independent city surrounded by, but not part of, the county of which it is the administrative center; for example, Fairfax City is both the county seat of Fairfax County and is completely surrounded by Fairfax County but the city is politically independent of the county.There are 38 independent cities, which are considered county-equivalents for census purposes.