For the 1990 census, the Census Bureau dropped the Palau District of the TTPI—it had served as the county-equivalent first-order subdivision of Palau—and elevated each lower-level entity one step in the hierarchy. The 16 municipalities, reported as MCDs in the 1980 census, were superseded by States upon ratification of Palau’s constitution on July 9, 1981; the Census Bureau treats the States as the statistical equivalents of counties. Each of the 16 States has its own constitution and officials. Maps certified by the Palau government for the Census Bureau’s use in the 1990 census relocated many of the boundaries of the former municipalities, but all the changes—some minor, some substantial—occurred in uninhabited territory. However, because some of the boundaries are in dispute, the Palau government—and, more specifically, its Division of Lands and Surveys—authorized their use for the 1990 census only; the maps will need to be reviewed and the boundaries reconfirmed if the Census Bureau includes Palau in the 2000 census. The 1980 census identified the numerous islands between Koror and Peleliu as unorganized territory; the 1990 census corrected this error by reassigning the islands to the States of Koror (primarily) and Peleliu. Only Sonsorol State is divided into MCDs, called municipalities—one for each of its four islands; for the other States, the Census Bureau represents the MCD level by a coextensive false entity that repeats the State name. The municipal districts, reported as sub-MCDs in the 1980 census, no longer exist.
The 1970 census reported data for only one place—Koror—which was referred to incorrectly as a town. For the 1980 and 1990 censuses, the Census Bureau recognized places as CDPs, provided that they had a census population of at least 300. Three settlements qualified as CDPs for both the 1980 and 1990 censuses. In their constitutions, five of the States identify place-type entities: municipalities in Ngarchelong; villages in Airai; and hamlets in Aimeliik, Ngchesar, and Ngiwal. These very small settlements, which sometimes adjoin one another, are based only on tradition and who lives in which house; each has its own chief, but does not have formal boundaries—nor could Palauan officials draw approximate boundaries that would permit the Census Bureau to recognize these traditional entities for the 1990 census similar to the villages of American Samoa.
Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas7-29
