Census-designated place Totally Explained

Everything about Census-designated Place totally explained

A census-designated place (CDP) is a type of place or area identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages. CDPs are communities that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places. CDPs are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they're located. The boundaries of a CDP have no legal status. The boundaries of such places may be defined in cooperation with local or tribal officials, but are not fixed, and don't affect the status of local government or incorporation; the territories thus defined are strictly statistical entities. CDP boundaries may change from one census to the next to reflect changes in settlement patterns. Further, as statistical entities, the boundaries of the CDP may not correspond with local understanding of the area with the same name. Recognized communities may be divided into two or more CDPs while on the other hand, two or more communities may be combined into one CDP. A CDP may also cover the unincorporated part of a named community where the rest lies within an incorporated place.
   By defining an area as a CDP, that locality then appears in the same category of census data as incorporated places. This distinguishes CDPs from other census classifications, such as minor civil divisions (MCDs), which are in a separate category.
   The population and demographics of the CDP district are included in the data of county subdivisions containing the CDP. In no case is a CDP defined within the boundaries of what the Census Bureau regards to be an incorporated city, village or borough. However, the Census Bureau considers Towns in New England states and New York as well as Townships in some other states as MCDs, even though they're incorporated municipalities in those states.
   There are a number of reasons for the CDP designation:

The area may be more urban than its surroundings, having a concentration of population with a definite residential nucleus, such as Whitmore Lake, Michigan, or Hershey, Pennsylvania.
A formerly incorporated place may disincorporate or be partly annexed by a neighboring town, but the former town or a part of it may still be reported by the census as a CDP by meeting criteria for a CDP. An example is the former village of Covedale, Ohio, compared with Covedale (CDP), Ohio.
The CDP designation may apply to large military bases (or parts of a military base) that are not within the boundaries of any existing community, such as Fort Campbell North and Fort Knox in Kentucky.
In some cases, a CDP may be defined for the urbanized area surrounding an incorporated municipality, but which is outside the municipal boundaries, for example Greater Galesburg, Michigan or Greater Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
In other cases, the boundary of an incorporated place may bisect a recognized community. An example of this is Bostonia, California, which straddles the city limits of El Cajon. The USGS places the nucleus of Bostonia within El Cajon. The Bostonia CDP covers the greater El Cajon area in unincorporated San Diego County that's generally north of that part of Bostonia within El Cajon.
The Census Bureau treats all townships as unincorporated places, even in those states where townships are incorporated under state law. This is so even in those states (for example, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and South Dakota) where the Census Bureau acknowledges that "All townships are actively functioning governmental units." (External Link)
In some states, a CDP may be defined within an incorporated municipality that (for the purposes of the census) is regarded as a minor civil division. For example, towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut are incorporated municipalities, but may also include both rural and urban areas. CDPs may be defined to describe urbanized areas within such municipalities, as in the case of North Amherst, Massachusetts. Another example is Cumberland Head, New York, part of Plattsburgh, New York.
Some CDPs represent an aggregation of several nearby communities, for example Shorewood-Tower Hills-Harbert, Michigan or Egypt Lake-Leto, Florida. However, the Census Bureau has proposed to discontinue this method for the 2010 Census.
Hawaii is the only state that has no incorporated places recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau below the county level. All data for places in Hawaii reported by the census are CDPs.

In some states, the Census Bureau may designate an entire minor civil division (MCD) as a CDP (for example West Bloomfield Township, Michigan or Reading, Massachusetts). Such designations are used in states where the MCDs function with strong governmental authority and provide services equivalent to an incorporated municipality (New England, the Middle Atlantic States, Michigan, and Wisconsin). MCDs appear in a separate category in census data from places (for example, incorporated places and CDPs); however, such MCDs strongly resemble incorporated places, and so CDPs coterminous with the MCDs are defined so that such places appear in both categories of census data. This practice will no longer be used in the 2010 Census. The PSAP will be offered to county and municipal planning agencies during 2008.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Census-designated Place'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://census-designated_place.totallyexplained.com">Census-designated place Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.