Talk:Census county division

United States: Government Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject U.S. Government (assessed as Mid-importance).

Census-designated place[edit]

How does a CCD differ from a Census-designated place (CPD)? Something should be mentioned in either this article or the one of CPDs about how they differ as defined by the Census. --Criticalthinker (talk) 06:04, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The CDP article says the following: By defining an area as a CDP, that locality then appears in the same category of census data as incorporated places. This distinguishes CDPs from other census classifications, such as minor civil divisions (MCDs), which are in a separate category.

In brief, CCD are arbitrarily designated subdivisions of a county. This is in contrast to existing governmental/administrative subdivisions such as civil townships, precincts, or magisterial districts. CCDs are defined by the Census Bureau for counties that do not have these existing subdivisions.

On the other hand, CDPs correspond with incorporated places, such as cities or villages. These are defined by the Census Bureau where there is a urbanized area that resembles an incorporated place in terms of population concentration. older ≠ wiser 18:15, 4 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I'm still a bit confused, so let me use and example. Honolulu, Hawaii is not an administrative divisions since the state doesn't have municipal/local governments. Why would that urban settlement have a CCD and a CDP? What would be the use of a CCD in this instance? Is the issue that CCDs predatee CDPs, and they simply haven't phased out the former? --Criticalthinker (talk) 11:24, 5 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

CCDs and CDPs are used to compile different types of statistics. CCDs appear on lists of county subdivisions and CDPs appear on lists of places. It appears that Honolulu is both a CCD and CDP (although it is possible that the exact extent of the two might not be coterminus -- I haven't checked). Since there is no incorporated city of Honolulu, the CDP is needed so that it is included for comparison with other places. The CCD is needed so that the entire county of Honolulu is included in the lists of county subdivisions. older ≠ wiser 13:52, 5 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It is my understanding that tthe CDP and CCD for Honolulu aren't coterminous, which is what confuses me, and I don't believe the CCD corresponds with either the urban settlement's CDP nor the County of Oahu. --Criticalthinker (talk) 05:31, 6 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If they are not coterminus, it is a bit odd that the same name is used for both, but that the CCD area differs from the CDP is not so surprising as they serve different purposes. The CCD is a somewhat arbitrary division of the county (I think you meant the county of Honolulu rather than Oahu -- and it would be unusual for a single CCD to be coterminus with the county it is in). The boundaries of a CCD are meant to remain relatively stable from one Census to the next. OTHOH, a CDP is meant to correspond to an urbanized area, and the boundaries of the CDP may be adjusted from census to census to reflect shifting population patterns. older ≠ wiser 12:22, 6 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]