All counties and statistically equivalent entities consist of one or more geo-
graphic units that the Bureau of the Census recognizes as county subdivi-
sions. The two major types of county subdivisions are minor civil divisions
(MCDs) and census county divisions (CCDs). A State has either MCDs or
their statistical equivalents, or CCDs; it cannot contain both.
Minor civil divisions are the primary subcounty governmental or administra-
tive units; they have legal boundaries and names as well as governmental
functions or administrative purposes specified by State law. The most famil-
iar types of MCDs are towns and townships, but there are many others (see
Table 8-1). In some situations, the Census Bureau must complete the cover-
age of subcounty units by creating additional entities called unorganized
territories (UTs) that it treats as being statistically equivalent to MCDs. The
Census Bureau has established UTs in certain MCD States to account for the
part or parts of a county that are not within any MCD or MCD equivalent.
As of 1994, unorganized territories exist in nine States: Arkansas, Iowa, Indi-
ana, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, and South
Dakota.1 The Census Bureau recognizes MCDs and MCD equivalents as the
county subdivisions of 28 States and the District of Columbia (see Figure 8-1).
Census county divisions are the statistical entities established cooperatively
by the Census Bureau and officials of State and local governments in the
21 States where MCDs either do not exist or are unsatisfactory for the col-
lection, presentation, and analysis of census statistics. They are designed
to represent community areas focused on trading centers or, in some
instances, major land use areas. They have visible, permanent, and easily
described boundaries.
In the State of Alaska, which has no counties and no MCDs, the Census
Bureau and State officials have established census subareas (CSAs) as the
statistical equivalents of MCDs. These are subdivisions of the boroughs
County Subd