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 to consider changing the territory’s relationship with the United States. Eighty percent voted to retain territorial status; however, the referendum was legally meaningless because more than 50 percent of the eligible voters had to participate, but only 27.4 percent did so.

The Census Bureau treats the three main islands as the statistical equivalents of counties (see ), but they do not have their own governments. Nearby islands are included with the closest large island; for example, Water Island, offshore from Charlotte Amalie, is included with St. Thomas. For administrative purposes, some government offices separately serve St. Croix and, jointly, St. Thomas/St. John, but these are part of the territorial government. Residents of St. Croix favor some form of local government for their island, but nothing will happen without agreement from St. Thomas/St. John—which was not forthcoming in a 1990 referendum.

Until the 1980 census, the Census Bureau reported sub-island data by quarters, which primarily and historically serve as areas for land recordation; the quarters are further divided into estates, which the Census Bureau has never recognized in its data presentations. Because these old Danish units have no major legal significance—their boundaries typically are straight lines that follow no visible features and have no relationship to the rugged terrain—and because the Virgin Islands needed a modern geographic unit that was more meaningful for the tabulation of decennial census data, the Virgin Islands government created census subdistricts. Legally established by Act No. 4349 on October 1, 1979, the subdistricts are intended to be permanent areas that reflect the Territory’s land-use planning districts. The Census Bureau first used the subdistricts as the statistical equivalents of MCDs for the 1980 census.

The Census Bureau recognizes three towns for the decennial census of the Virgin Islands—Charlotte Amalie, Christiansted, and Frederiksted. These places were held as separate MCDs and incorrectly referred to as cities prior to the 1980 census. Because these entities have legal boundaries that are defined by Chapter 5 of the Virgin Islands Code, and serve 7-40Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas