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 Chapter 8

All counties and statistically equivalent entities consist of one or more geographic units that the Bureau of the Census recognizes as county subdivisions. The two major types of county subdivisions are minor civil divisions (MCDs) and census county divisions (CCDs). A State has either MCDs or their statistical equivalents, or CCDs; it cannot contain both.

Minor civil divisions are the primary subcounty governmental or administrative units; they have legal boundaries and names as well as governmental functions or administrative purposes specified by State law. The most familiar types of MCDs are towns and townships, but there are many others (see ). In some situations, the Census Bureau must complete the coverage of subcounty units by creating additional entities called unorganized territories (UTs) that it treats as being statistically equivalent to MCDs. The Census Bureau has established UTs in certain MCD States to account for the part or parts of a county that are not within any MCD or MCD equivalent. As of 1994, unorganized territories exist in nine States: Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Census Bureau recognizes MCDs and MCD equivalents as the county subdivisions of 28 States and the District of Columbia (see ).

Census county divisions are the statistical entities established cooperatively by the Census Bureau and officials of State and local governments in the 21 States where MCDs either do not exist or are unsatisfactory for the collection, presentation, and analysis of census statistics. They are designed to represent community areas focused on trading centers or, in some instances, major land use areas. They have visible, permanent, and easily described boundaries.

In the State of Alaska, which has no counties and no MCDs, the Census Bureau and State officials have established census subareas (CSAs) as the statistical equivalents of MCDs. These are subdivisions of the boroughs Notes and References County Subdivisions8-1