in any MCD elections. The independent incorporated places in a State constitute a separate type of county subdivision apart from its MCDs. Of the 28 MCD States, there are 20 with such MCD equivalents. At the time of the 1990 census, only 19 States had independent incorporated places. An additional State, North Carolina, now has independent incorporated places as well. Usually these independent incorporated places are cities; however, in some States they also are boroughs, towns, and villages (see Table 8-2).
Also independent of MCDs are those incorporated places that are independent of any county; the Census Bureau refers to these as independent cities. The Census Bureau treats the entire independent city as a single entity that is equivalent to both a county and an MCD. Virginia has 41 independent cities; Maryland and Missouri each have 1 (see Chapter 4, “States, Counties, and Statistically Equivalent Entities,” for details).
Some counties in nine MCD States (Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota) contain unorganized areas, areas that never had, or no longer possess, any governmental or administrative organization similar to the other MCDs in that State. Such areas have no legal name, legal status, or legal boundaries (except where bounded by MCD limits or a county line); the county and/or State provides the governmental functions for their residents.
The Census Bureau uses the term unorganized territory to identify such areas, and has developed a standard approach to simplify the presentation of data for them in the tabulations from the decennial censuses. The Census Bureau delineates each contiguous unorganized area as at least one UT. Larger areas are divided into more than one UT using physical features as boundaries. Each separate area thus is recognized as a UT, and may be named for a former MCD, a large settlement, or a physical feature—depending on which name best describes the area. In counties with several geographically discontiguous pieces of unorganized area, each piece is given an easily recognizable name usually based on its location within
