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Vital Records Offices in All 50 States & DC
Pick a state to see its central vital records office, current fees, processing times, and county-level guidance for marriage licenses and divorce decrees.
- Alabama (AL)
- Alaska (AK)
- Arizona (AZ)
- Arkansas (AR)
- California (CA)
- Colorado (CO)
- Connecticut (CT)
- Delaware (DE)
- District of Columbia (DC)
- Florida (FL)
- Georgia (GA)
- Hawaii (HI)
- Idaho (ID)
- Illinois (IL)
- Indiana (IN)
- Iowa (IA)
- Kansas (KS)
- Kentucky (KY)
- Louisiana (LA)
- Maine (ME)
- Maryland (MD)
- Massachusetts (MA)
- Michigan (MI)
- Minnesota (MN)
- Mississippi (MS)
- Missouri (MO)
- Montana (MT)
- Nebraska (NE)
- Nevada (NV)
- New Hampshire (NH)
- New Jersey (NJ)
- New Mexico (NM)
- New York (NY)
- North Carolina (NC)
- North Dakota (ND)
- Ohio (OH)
- Oklahoma (OK)
- Oregon (OR)
- Pennsylvania (PA)
- Rhode Island (RI)
- South Carolina (SC)
- South Dakota (SD)
- Tennessee (TN)
- Texas (TX)
- Utah (UT)
- Vermont (VT)
- Virginia (VA)
- Washington (WA)
- West Virginia (WV)
- Wisconsin (WI)
- Wyoming (WY)
- Puerto Rico (PR)
- US Virgin Islands (VI)
- Guam (GU)
- American Samoa (AS)
- Northern Mariana Islands (MP)
Why state matters
The United States does not maintain a single, federal database of vital records. Births, deaths, marriages, and divorces are registered with the state in which the event occurred, and certified copies must be ordered from that state — not the state where the person currently lives. If you were born in Ohio, moved to Arizona at age six, and now need a passport at age forty, you must order your birth certificate from the Ohio Department of Health, no matter how long it has been since you lived there.
The same rule applies to death records (order from the state of death), marriage records (order from the state where the license was issued), and divorce decrees (order from the court that finalized the divorce). The state pages on this site give you the exact agency, address, and fee for each.
When the county is the right place to ask
Marriage and divorce records, in particular, are usually issued and held at the county or court level rather than by the state. A handful of states (such as Massachusetts and Nevada) centralize marriage records in the state vital records office; many more (including California, Texas, and New York outside NYC) leave them entirely with the county clerk who issued the license. Each state page on this site notes which approach applies and points you to the county pages where relevant.