products. A small percentage of CDPs show a final population below the minimum size threshold because their qualification was based on the preliminary (post-census local review), rather than final counts.
The Census Bureau does not grandfather existing CDPs. CDP program participants must identify the boundaries for their proposed CDPs each time the Census Bureau implements the program. Data users may notice differences in the universe and areal extent of CDPs from one decennial census to the next for several reasons. First, all or part of the territory in a previously recognized CDP may have become part of a new or existing incorporated place. Second, the census statistical areas committees, State agencies, or tribal officials that function as program participants may have chosen not to submit a previously recognized CDP, or may have submitted previously unrecognized CDPs that qualify as new CDPs. Third, the previously delineated CDP may no longer meet one of the current criteria for qualification because of a change in criteria, or because it no longer has the required minimum population size. Finally, a previously recognized community may have been combined, renamed, or fragmented by delineation of new CDPs in such a way that the remnants of the former entity are no longer identifiable as a community.
State and local laws, customs, and practices greatly affect the recognition and distribution of CDPs nationwide. Several States in the Midwest region have very few CDPs because almost all population concentrations have incorporated as places. Maryland, Virginia, California, Florida, New York, and Georgia are examples of States in which a number of very large suburban population centers have developed with no legal corporate status. Strong county governments in those States provide the urban-type services that only incorporated place governments provide in many other States. In 1990, Iowa had the fewest CDPs (two), followed by Idaho (three), and Kansas and Nebraska (four each). California, Florida, and New York have the largest number of CDPs (420, 365, and 350, respectively). Table 9-7 shows the number of, and population totals for, CDPs and incorporated places in each State.
Places9-29
