place and an MCD, such as the 1986 merger of Northampton township, Ohio, into Cuyahoga Falls city. Typically, the name of the preexisting largest entity is adopted for the one remaining government, but occasionally, the names of both merging entities are combined to represent the surviving government, or the entity adopts an altogether new name. In an unusual four-place merger that took place in January 1994, the cities of Flat River, Elvins, Esther, and the village of Rivermines, Missouri, joined to form the new place of Park Hills.
Although the term consolidation sometimes is used interchangeably with merger, the Census Bureau generally uses consolidation to describe the creation of a new type of government resulting from an agreement between a city, its surrounding county, and any other governmental units within that county. The term consolidation is used when different levels of government are represented by a single entity; this new type of government has jurisdiction over the entire county or MCD area, unless some preexisting places are specifically excluded, as is the case with Lawrence, Beech Grove, Speedway, and Southport, Indiana, which have no governmental association with Indianapolis, Indiana. The Census Bureau defines a consolidated city as one wherein an additional incorporated place or places continue(s) to exist. In 1990, there were six consolidated cities: Butte–Silver Bow, Montana; Columbus, Georgia; Indianapolis, Indiana; Jacksonville, Florida; Milford, Connecticut; and Nashville–Davidson, Tennessee. In 1991, Athens–Clarke County, Georgia, became a consolidated city. All of these consolidated cities represent city–county consolidations except Milford, Connecticut, which is the consolidation of a city and an MCD.
For the 1990 census, the Census Bureau reported the population of the smaller incorporated places that continue to exist within the consolidation as separate from the principal city, which is described as remainder in the data tables. The Census Bureau treats each entity with the remainder designation as a separate place; the consolidated government is not treated as a place, but as a separate consolidated city entity in the data presentation.
