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 Incorporated places have legally prescribed relationships with governmental entities such as States, counties, and MCDs. Incorporated places have geographic relationships with nongovernmental statistical entities such as census tracts, block numbering areas (BNAs), block groups and census blocks, census county divisions (CCDs), and urbanized areas (UAs). The geographic hierarchy shows the interrelationships of these entities to places (see and  in, “Geographic Overview”).

Because incorporated places are chartered by States, no place may extend into more than one State. Thus, cities of the same name that might appear to be one are each distinct geographic entities. Examples include Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas; Texarkana, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas; and Bristol, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee.

In most States, multi-county places are common; however in the New England States and the States of California, Montana, Nevada, and New Jersey, incorporated places do not cross county lines. In Virginia, the 41 cities are independent of any county, and the Census Bureau treats them as the statistical equivalents of counties; also, there is one independent city each in Maryland (Baltimore), Missouri (St. Louis), and Nevada (Carson City).

Incorporated places have varying relationships with county subdivisions in their respective States. In 21 States, the Census Bureau, in cooperation with State officials and the census statistical areas committees, has designated census county divisions (CCDs). These have no governmental or administrative functions, and incorporated places in these States appear as dependent within the CCDs; that is, in statistical tables, the data for the places also are included in the totals for the CCDs, and the place names appear indented under the CCD names. Places may be located in more than one CCD.

In the remaining States, the county subdivisions are MCDs. Some of the MCDs have strong governments (in some States, they perform functions Places9-9