Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 10237 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given, 

pursuant to the provisions of the rules 

and regulations of the U.S. Commission 

on Civil Rights (Commission) and the 

Federal Advisory Committee Act that 

the Illinois Advisory Committee 

(Committee) will hold a meeting via the 

online platform WebEx on Tuesday, 

March 9, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. Central 

Time. The purpose of the meeting is for 

the Committee to start preparing for 

their upcoming WebEx briefing on 

Education and Civil Rights concerns in 

the state. 

DATES: The meeting will be held on: 

• Tuesday, March 9, 2021, at 12:00 

p.m. Central Time. Web link: https://

civilrights.webex.com/civilrights/ 

j.php?MTID=md4d564c28cf610f9e94e

7291a3d9bf0d. Join by phone: 800–360– 

9505 USA Toll Free. Access code: 199 

496 5009. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

David Barreras, Designated Federal 

Officer, at dbarreras@usccr.gov or (202) 

499–4066. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Members 

of the public may listen to this 

discussion through the above call-in 

number. An open comment period will 

be provided to allow members of the 

public to make a statement as time 

allows. Callers can expect to incur 

regular charges for calls they initiate 

over wireless lines, according to their 

wireless plan. The Commission will not 

refund any incurred charges. Individual 

who is deaf, deafblind and hard of 

hearing may also follow the proceedings 

by first calling the Federal Relay Service 

at 1–800–877–8339 and providing the 

Service with the conference call number 

and conference ID number. 

Members of the public are entitled to 

submit written comments; the 

comments must be received in the 

regional office within 30 days following 

the meeting. Written comments may be 

emailed to David Barreras at dbarreras@

usccr.gov. 

Records generated from this meeting 

may be inspected and reproduced at the 

Regional Programs Unit Office, as they 

become available, both before and after 

the meeting. Records of the meeting will 

be available via https://www.faca

database.gov/FACA/FACAPublicView

CommitteeDetails?id=a10t0000001

gzlZAAQ under the Commission on 

Civil Rights, Illinois Advisory 

Committee link. Persons interested in 

the work of this Committee are directed 

to the Commission’s website, http://

www.usccr.gov, or may contact the 

Regional Programs Unit at the above 

email or street address. 

Agenda 

I. Welcome & Roll Call 

II. Chair’s comments 

III. Discussion: Education Project 

IV. Next Steps 

V. Public Comment 

VI. Adjournment 

Dated: February 12, 2021. 

David Mussatt, 

Supervisory Chief, Regional Programs Unit. 

[FR Doc. 2021–03346 Filed 2–18–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Bureau of the Census 

[Docket Number 210212–0021] 

Urban Areas for the 2020 Census— 

Proposed Criteria 

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, 

Department of Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed program and 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: This notice provides the 

Bureau of the Census’ (hereafter, Census 

Bureau’s) proposed criteria for defining 

urban areas based on the results of the 

2020 Decennial Census. It also provides 

a description of the changes from the 

final criteria used for the 2010 Census. 

The Census Bureau is requesting public 

comment on these proposed criteria. 

The Census Bureau delineates urban 

areas after each decennial census by 

applying specified criteria to decennial 

census and other data. Since the 1950 

Census, the Census Bureau has 

reviewed and revised these criteria, as 

necessary, for each decennial census in 

order to improve the classification of 

urban areas by taking advantage of 

newly available data and advancements 

in geographic information processing 

technology. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

submitted on or before May 20, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Please direct all written 

comments on this proposed program via 

email at geo.urban@census.gov to 

Vincent Osier, Geographic Standards, 

Criteria, and Quality Branch, Geography 

Division, U.S. Census Bureau. Please 

note that paper comments cannot be 

reviewed due to limited building access 

caused by the COVID–19 pandemic. 

Phone: 301–763–1128. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information on 

this proposed program should be 

directed to Vincent Osier, Geographic 

Standards, Criteria, and Quality Branch, 

Geography Division, U.S. Census 

Bureau, via email at geo.urban@

census.gov. Phone: 301–763–1128. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Census Bureau’s urban area 

classification is fundamentally a 

delineation of geographical areas, 

identifying individual urban areas as 

well as the rural portion of the nation. 

The Census Bureau’s urban areas 

represent densely developed territory, 

and encompass residential, commercial, 

and other non-residential urban land 

uses. The boundaries of the urban areas 

have been defined primarily by using 

measures based on population counts 

and residential population density, and 

also by using measures based on criteria 

that account for non-residential urban 

land uses, such as commercial, 

industrial, transportation, and open 

space that are part of the urban 

landscape. Since the 1950 Census, when 

the Census Bureau first defined densely 

settled urbanized areas of 50,000 or 

more people, the urban area delineation 

process has addressed non-residential 

urban land uses through criteria 

designed to account for commercial 

enclaves, special land uses such as 

airports, and densely developed 

noncontiguous territory. 

In delineating urban areas, the Census 

Bureau does not take into account or 

attempt to meet the requirements of any 

nonstatistical uses of these areas or their 

associated data. Nonetheless, the Census 

Bureau recognizes that some federal and 

state agencies use the Census Bureau’s 

urban area classification for 

nonstatistical uses such as allocating 

program funds, setting program 

standards, and implementing aspects of 

their programs. The agencies that use 

the classification and data for such 

nonstatistical uses should be aware that 

the changes to the urban area criteria 

also might affect the implementation of 

their programs. In addition, the Census 

Bureau is not responsible for the use of 

its urban area classification in 

nonstatistical programs. If a federal, 

tribal, state, or local agency uses the 

urban area classification for 

nonstatistical purposes, it is that 

agency’s responsibility to ensure that 

the classification is appropriate for such 

use. 

(1) History 

Over the course of a century defining 

urban areas, the Census Bureau has 

introduced conceptual and 

methodological changes to ensure that 

the urban area classification keeps pace 

with changes in settlement patterns and 

with changes in theoretical and 

practical approaches to interpreting and 

understanding the definition of urban 

areas. Prior to the 1950 Census, the 

Census Bureau primarily defined 

‘‘urban’’ as any population, housing, 


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10238 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 

1The central place concept was not necessary for 

urban area delineation and the resulting list of 

qualified central places largely duplicated the list 

of principal cities identified by the Metropolitan 

and Micropolitan Statistical Area standards. There 

was no conceptual reason to continue identifying 

two slightly different lists of cities and other places 

that were central to their respective regions. 

and territory located within 

incorporated places with a population 

of 2,500 or more. That definition was 

easy and straightforward to implement, 

requiring no need to calculate 

population density; to understand and 

account for actual settlement patterns 

on the ground in relation to boundaries 

of administrative units; or to consider 

densely settled populations existing 

outside incorporated municipalities. For 

much of the first half of the twentieth 

century, that definition was adequate for 

defining ‘‘urban’’ and ‘‘rural’’ in the 

United States, but by 1950 it became 

clear that it was incomplete. 

Increasing suburbanization, 

particularly outside the boundaries of 

large incorporated places led the Census 

Bureau to adopt the urbanized area 

concept for the 1950 Census. At that 

time, the Census Bureau formally 

recognized that densely settled 

communities outside the boundaries of 

large incorporated municipalities were 

just as ‘‘urban’’ as the densely settled 

population inside those boundaries. 

Outside of urbanized areas of 50,000 or 

more people, the Census Bureau 

continued to recognize urban places 

with at least 2,500 and less than 50,000 

persons. This basic conceptual approach 

to identifying urban areas remained in 

effect through the 1990 Census, albeit 

with some changes to criteria and 

delineation methods. 

The Census Bureau adopted six 

substantial changes to its urban area 

criteria for the 2000 Census: 

• Defining urban clusters using the 

same criteria as urbanized areas. 

• Disregarding incorporated place 

and census designated place (CDP) 

boundaries when defining urbanized 

areas and urban clusters. 

• Adoption of 500 persons per square 

mile (ppsm) as the minimum density 

criterion for recognizing some types of 

urban territory. 

• An increase in the maximum jump 

distance for linking densely developed 

territory separated from the main body 

of the urban area by intervening low 

density territory from 1.5 to 2.5 miles. 

This recognized the prospect that larger 

clusters of non-residential urban uses 

might offset contiguity of densely 

settled territory. 

• Introduction of the hop concept to 

provide an objective basis for 

recognizing that nonresidential urban 

uses, such as small commercial areas or 

parks, create small gaps between 

densely settled residential territories, 

but are part of the pattern of 

urbanization. 

• Adoption of a zero-based approach 

to defining urban areas. 

For the 2010 Census, the Census 

Bureau adopted moderate changes and 

enhancements to the criteria to improve 

upon the classification of urban and 

rural areas while continuing to meet the 

objective of a uniform application of 

criteria nationwide. These changes 

were: 

• Use of census tracts as analysis 

units in the initial phase of delineation. 

• Use of land use/land cover data 

from the National Land Cover Database 

(NLCD) to identify qualifying areas of 

non-residential urban land uses. 

• Qualification of airports for 

inclusion in urban areas. 

• Elimination of the designation of 

central places within urban areas.1

• Requirement for minimum 

population residing outside institutional 

group quarters. 

• Splitting large urban 

agglomerations. 

The conceptual and criteria changes 

adopted for both the 2000 and 2010 

Censuses, as well as the history of the 

Census Bureau’s urban area 

classification, are discussed in more 

detail in the document ‘‘A Century of 

Delineating a Changing Landscape: The 

Census Bureau’s Urban and Rural 

Classification, 1910 to 2010,’’ available 

at https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/ 

reference/ua/Century_of_Defining_

Urban.pdf. 

(2) Proposed Changes for the 2020 

Urban Areas 

Adoption of a Housing Unit Density 

Threshold for Qualification of Census 

Blocks 

The Census Bureau proposes adopting 

a housing unit density threshold of 385 

housing units per square mile as the 

primary criterion for determining 

whether a census block qualifies for 

inclusion in an urban area, replacing the 

use of population density. The 385 

housing units (occupied or vacant) per 

square mile density threshold utilized 

in the delineation of urban areas is 

consistent with the 1,000 persons per 

square mile density used in the past, 

based on the 2019 American 

Community Survey (ACS) 1-year data 

average of an estimated 2.6 persons per 

household for the United States. 

Housing unit density provides a more 

direct measure of the densely developed 

landscape than population density. The 

use of housing unit density will allow 

the Census Bureau to more accurately 

account for areas with substantial 

concentrations of housing that are 

considered part of the urban landscape, 

but have smaller than average persons 

per housing unit or seasonal 

populations or both. This change also 

will provide the ability to update the 

extent of urban areas between censuses, 

based on housing unit information in 

the Census Bureau’s Master Address 

File. Intercensal updates of urban areas 

have not been possible to date, due to 

the lack of population counts at the 

census block-level between decennial 

censuses. As a result, although the 

Census Bureau presented estimated 

populations for urban areas based on the 

ACS, these data were produced using 

boundaries defined based on data from 

the previous decennial census and did 

not keep pace with changes to the extent 

of urbanization. In addition, the Census 

Bureau’s decision to adopt differential 

privacy methodology as a means for 

protecting the privacy of individual 

responses to the decennial census has 

been accompanied by the decision that 

published census block-level 

populations should be variant—that is, 

the published population count for any 

given census block will vary from the 

enumerated population count in order 

to protect individuals from 

reidentification. This will affect the 

calculation of population density at the 

census block-level. Housing unit counts, 

however, are invariant and will reflect 

the number of housing units 

enumerated in each block, and thus are 

a more consistent measure. 

Qualify Urban Areas Based on a 

Minimum Threshold of 4,000 Housing 

Units or 10,000 Persons Instead of a 

Minimum Threshold of 2,500 Persons 

The Census Bureau proposes that an 

area will qualify as urban if it contains 

at least 4,000 housing units or has a 

population of at least 10,000. The 

proposed increase in the minimum 

population responds to calls for the 

Census Bureau to increase its minimum 

threshold for defining urban areas from 

the 2,500-person minimum established 

in 1910. The proposed 10,000-person 

minimum threshold aligns with 

thresholds used by other federal 

agencies to distinguish between urban 

and rural areas as well as with the Office 

of Management and Budget’s minimum 

threshold for urban areas that form the 

cores of micropolitan statistical areas. 

The proposal to adopt a housing unit 

threshold is consistent with our 

proposed shift to housing unit density 

and is proposed for the same reasons: It 

provides a more direct measure of 

settlement and the built environment 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 10239 

and bases qualification on a measure 

that is not subject to variance resulting 

from the Census Bureau’s disclosure 

avoidance methodology. The proposed 

4,000-housing unit threshold 

approximates the 10,000-person 

threshold based on the national average 

of 2.6 persons per household. We are 

proposing use of either threshold for 

qualification of an area as urban, based 

on the recognition that some areas have 

average persons per household sizes 

larger than the national average of 2.6, 

or may contain a substantial number of 

persons living in group quarters (or 

both), and, as a result, may have 

populations of 10,000 or more, but less 

than 4,000 housing units. 

Cease Distinguishing Different Types of 

Urban Areas 

The Census Bureau proposes to cease 

distinguishing different types of urban 

areas. In adopting this proposal, the 

Census Bureau would identify urban 

areas of 4,000 or more housing units or 

10,000 or more persons without 

distinguishing types of urban areas. The 

50,000-person threshold that has been 

used to distinguish between urbanized 

areas and smaller urban areas (whether 

urban places outside urbanized areas or 

urban clusters) no longer has the same 

meaning as when it was adopted in 

1950 and, therefore, should no longer be 

used to distinguish types of urban areas. 

Further, the threshold is, to some extent, 

arbitrary; that is, as far as the Census 

Bureau has been able to determine from 

scholarship, there is no reason to 

assume that an urban area of just over 

50,000 persons is fundamentally 

different in terms of economic and 

social functions and services than an 

area with just under 50,000 persons. 

Lastly, federal agencies apply a range of 

thresholds to various urban-rural 

classifications. These thresholds can be 

applied to the published data by the 

individual agencies to meet their own 

objectives. 

Maximum Distances of Jumps 

Jumps (and the shorter distance hops) 

recognize that urban development is not 

always a continuous and contiguous 

process across the landscape, and 

facilitate inclusion of noncontiguous 

densely developed territory that is 

considered part of the nearby urban 

area. (For more information about the 

history and evolution of the jump and 

hop concepts, see ‘‘A Century of 

Delineating a Changing Landscape: The 

Census Bureau’s Urban and Rural 

Classification, 1910 to 2010,’’ available 

at https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/ 

reference/ua/Century_of_Defining_

Urban.pdf.) The Census Bureau 

proposes reducing the maximum jump 

distance to 1.5 miles, returning to the 

maximum distance employed in urban 

area delineation from the 1950 Census 

through the 1990 Census. Data users, 

analysts, and some urban geographers 

expressed concern that the 2.5 mile 

maximum jump distance adopted for 

the 2000 Census was too generous in 

some situations and resulted in 

overextension of urban area territory. 

The Census Bureau proposed reverting 

to 1.5 miles in the proposed criteria for 

the 2010 Census, but responses from 

commenters were inconclusive and, as a 

result, no change was made. We 

continue to be concerned about the 

possible overextension of urban area 

territory in some situations as a result of 

the 2.5 mile maximum jump distance. 

The impervious surface criteria adopted 

in 2010 accounted for non-residential 

urban land uses, many of which also 

were in mind when we extended the 

jump distance for the 2000 Census. 

Thus, the two criteria serve largely the 

same purpose, but are applied 

separately, and when taken together, 

they can result in overextension of 

urban territory. 

No Longer Include the Low Density Hop 

or Jump ‘‘Corridor’’ in the Urban Area 

The Census Bureau proposes to no 

longer include within an urban area the 

low density territory intervening 

between the main body of the urban 

area and the outlying qualifying 

territory that is the destination of a hop 

or a jump or exempted territory that has 

been separated from the urban area core 

by water or wetlands. This will result in 

noncontiguous urban areas. Review of 

2010 Census urban areas indicates that, 

due to their often irregular and 

relatively large geographic extent, 

including the corridor blocks sometimes 

resulted in the inclusion of population, 

housing, and territory that is otherwise 

of a rural nature and contains land uses 

that are not consistent with those found 

in the densely developed blocks on 

either end of the hop or jump corridor. 

We note that the 1950 Census criteria 

for defining urbanized areas, while 

permitting jumps of up to 1.5 miles 

across low density intervening territory, 

did not call for inclusion of the low 

density jump corridor in the urban area. 

This change in criteria will result in a 

more accurate depiction of the patterns 

of urban development. 

No Longer Include Low-Density 

Territory Located Within Indentations 

Formed During the Urban Area 

Delineation Process 

Consistent with concerns about 

overbounding of urban areas and with 

the decision to no longer include the 

low-density hop and jump corridors 

within urban areas, we propose to cease 

including low-density territory within 

indentations that are formed during the 

delineation process when densely 

developed, qualifying territory 

surrounds low-density territory on three 

sides. Previous urban area criteria 

provided for the inclusion of 

indentations, when specified conditions 

were met, to (1) account for potential 

non-residential urban land uses that 

may be located within the indentation, 

(2) account for the potential for higher 

density development in the near future, 

and (3) produce smoother, less 

complicated boundaries for mapping 

purposes. Review of land uses within 

indentations formed during the 2010 

urban area delineation has indicated 

that much of the territory remains less 

developed and less urban in character. 

Given that the impervious surface 

criteria are sufficient for identifying 

non-residential urban land uses and that 

modern computerized mapping and 

visualization methods provide the 

ability for users to view boundaries are 

various scales or ‘‘zoom levels,’’ thus 

reducing the need for smoother 

boundaries, we no longer see a need to 

close off indentations when delineating 

urban areas. 

Splitting of Large Agglomerations of 

Densely Settled Territory 

The automated process utilized by the 

Census Bureau results in the delineation 

of large agglomerations of continuously 

developed territory. While there is value 

in the identification of large 

agglomerations, some are too large and 

extensive to be of use for most analyses 

involving urban areas. Examples of large 

agglomerations of continuously 

developed territory exist throughout the 

United States and Puerto Rico, some 

encompassing only a pair of urban 

areas; others encompassing three or 

more urban areas extending across 

multiple states. 

The question of when and how to 

merge adjacent urban areas or split large 

agglomerations has existed since the 

delineation of urban areas for the 1960 

Census. Past criteria relied upon 

metropolitan statistical area or primary 

metropolitan statistical area definitions 

to determine whether to merge adjacent 

urban areas or, as was the case in the 

2010 Census criteria, split 

agglomerations based on the previous 

decade’s urbanized areas. Neither of 

these approaches relied upon objective 

measures consistent with the same time 

frame as the measures used in the 

delineation process. In other words, 

agglomerations were delineated based 


tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with NOTICES
10240 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 

2Thomas, I., A. Adam, and A. Verhetsel. 

Migration and commuting interactions fields: A 

new geography with community detection 

algorithm? 2017. Belgeo. [Online], 4. http://

journals.openedition.org/belgeo/20507. Traag V.A, 

L. Waltman and N.J. van Eck. From Louvain to 

Leiden: Guaranteeing well-connected communities. 

2019. Scientific Reports. 9:5233. 3For Census Bureau purposes, the United States 

includes the 50 States and the District of Columbia. 

4A census block is the smallest geographic area 

for which the Census Bureau tabulates data and is 

an area normally bounded by visible features, such 

as streets, rivers or streams, shorelines, and 

railroads, and by nonvisible features, such as the 

boundary of an incorporated place, minor civil 

division, county, or other 2020 Census tabulation 

entity. 

5The Census Bureau has found in testing the 

NLCD that territory with an impervious percent less 

than twenty percent results in the inclusion of road 

and structure edges, and not the actual roads or 

buildings themselves. 

on data either from or contemporary 

with the decennial census, but were 

split based on the results of the previous 

decade’s data and delineation. 

For the 2020 Census, the Census 

Bureau proposes using worker flow data 

(i.e., commuting flows) from the 

Longitudinal Employer-Household 

Dynamics (LEHD) Program to identify 

whether the agglomeration represents a 

single functionally integrated region or 

whether commuting patterns indicate 

the presence of distinct urban areas 

within the larger agglomeration. The 

LEHD worker flow data would be used 

in two stages. The first stage is an 

analysis of adjacent 2010 Census urban 

areas, based on aggregate commuter 

flows into and out of each urban area. 

Adjacent 2010 Census urban areas will 

be merged if 50 percent or more of the 

workers in the smaller urban area are 

working in the larger urban area and 50 

percent or more of the jobs in the 

smaller urban area are filled by workers 

residing in the larger urban area. If not 

merged, urban areas are selected for 

further analysis and split boundary 

adjustment. The second stage is 

identification of where to split large 

agglomerations, based on patterns 

observed by performing ‘‘community’’ 

detection on the LEHD worker flow 

data. ‘‘Community’’ boundaries 

resulting from application of the Leiden 

Algorithm 2 to the worker flow data will 

be used to adjust 2010 Census urban 

area split boundaries for the final 2020 

Census urban areas. Application of this 

criterion could shift territory from one 

2010 urban area to a different 2020 

urban area. The resulting splits will 

reflect contemporaneous commuting 

patterns, which in turn, serve as proxy 

measures for other kinds of economic 

and social interactions within urban 

areas. 

(3) Proposed Urban Area Criteria for 

the 2020 Census 

The proposed criteria outlined herein 

apply to the United States,3 Puerto Rico, 

and the Island Areas of American 

Samoa, the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and 

the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Census 

Bureau proposes the following criteria 

and characteristics for use in identifying 

the areas that will qualify for 

designation as urban areas for use in 

tabulating data from the 2020 Census, 

the American Community Survey 

(ACS), the Puerto Rico Community 

Survey, and potentially other Census 

Bureau censuses and surveys. 

A. 2020 Census Urban Area Definitions 

For the 2020 Census, an urban area 

will comprise a densely developed core 

of census blocks 4 that meet minimum 

housing unit density requirements, 

along with adjacent territory containing 

non-residential urban land uses as well 

as other lower density territory included 

to link outlying densely settled territory 

with the densely settled core. To qualify 

as an urban area, the territory identified 

according to the proposed criteria must 

encompass at least 4,000 housing units 

or at least 10,000 persons. The term 

‘‘rural’’ encompasses all population, 

housing, and territory not included 

within an urban area. 

As a result of the urban area 

delineation process, an incorporated 

place or census designated place (CDP) 

may be partly inside and partly outside 

an urban area. Any census geographic 

areas, with the exception of census 

blocks, may be partly within and partly 

outside an urban area. 

All proposed criteria based on land 

area, housing unit density, and 

population, reflect the information 

contained in the Census Bureau’s 

Master Address File/Topologically 

Integrated Geographic Encoding and 

Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database 

(MTDB) at the time of the initial 

delineation. All calculations of housing 

unit density include only land; the areas 

of water contained within census blocks 

are not used in density calculations. 

Housing unit, population, and worker 

flow data used in the urban area 

delineation process will be those 

published by the Census Bureau for all 

public and official uses. 

B. Proposed Urban Area Delineation 

Criteria 

The Census Bureau proposes to define 

urban areas primarily on the basis of 

housing unit density measured at the 

census block level of geography. The 

385 housing units per square mile 

density threshold utilized in the 

delineation of urban areas is consistent 

with the 1,000 persons per square mile 

density used in the past, based on the 

2019 ACS 1-year data average of an 

estimated 2.6 persons per household for 

the United States. 

1. Identification of Initial Urban Area 

Cores 

The Census Bureau proposes to begin 

the delineation process by identifying 

and aggregating contiguous census 

blocks each having a housing unit 

density of at least 385 housing units per 

square mile. This aggregation of 

continuous census blocks would be 

known as the ‘‘initial urban area core.’’ 

The initial urban area core must 

encompass at least 385 housing units 

(consistent with the requirement for at 

least 1,000 people in the 2010 criteria). 

After the initial urban area core is 

identified, additional census blocks 

would be included if it is adjacent to 

other qualifying territory and if it meets 

any of the following criteria: 

a. It has a housing unit density of at 

least 385 housing units per square mile. 

b. At least one-third of the census 

block consists of territory with a level of 

imperviousness of at least twenty 

percent,5 and is compact in nature as 

defined by a shape index. A census 

block is considered compact when the 

shape index is at least 0.185 using the 

following formula: I = 4pA/P2 where I is 

the shape index, A is the area of the 

entity, and P is the perimeter of the 

entity. 

c. At least one-third of the census 

block consists of territory with a level of 

imperviousness of at least twenty 

percent, and at least forty percent of its 

boundary is contiguous with qualifying 

territory. 

The Census Bureau would apply 

proposed criteria 1.a, 1.b, and 1.c above 

until there are no blocks to add to the 

urban area. Any ‘‘holes’’ or remaining 

nonqualifying territory completely 

contained within an initial urban area 

core that is less than five square miles 

in area will qualify as urban via the 

criteria for inclusion of enclaves, as set 

forth below in the III. B. 5., subheading 

entitled, ‘‘5. Inclusion of Enclaves.’’ 

2. Inclusion of Group Quarters 

Census blocks containing institutional 

and non-institutional group quarters 

that are adjacent to census blocks 

qualifying based on the criteria outlined 

in step 1 above (‘‘1. Identification of 

Initial Urban Area Cores’’) will be 

included in the urban area. This 

criterion accounts for the fact that group 

quarters, such as college dormitories, 

are not considered housing units by the 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 10241 

6All initial urban area cores with less than 4,000 

housing units or 10,000 persons are not selected to 

continue the delineation as separate urban areas; 

however, these cores still are eligible for inclusion 

in an urban area using subsequent proposed criteria 

and procedures. 

7The land cover and land use types used to 

define exempted territory are limited to only those 

that are included in or can be derived from the 

Census Bureau’s MTDB or the MRLC’s most recent 

version of the NLCD nationally, consistently, and 

with some reasonable level of accuracy. 

8For the MRLC’s 2016 NLCD, wetlands are 

identified as belonging to one of eight wetlands 

class definitions including woody, palustrine 

forested, palustrine scrub/shrub, estuarine forested, 

estuarine scrub/shrub, emergent herbaceous, 

palustrine emergent (persistent), or estuarine 

emergent. 

9The annual passenger boarding data only 

includes primary, non-primary commercial service, 

and general aviation enplanements as defined and 

reported by the FAA Air Carrier Activity 

Information System. 

10The Census Bureau found in testing that 

individual (or groups of) census blocks with a high 

degree of impervious surface land cover with an 

area less than 0.15 square miles tend to be more 

associated with road infrastructure features such as 

cloverleaf overpasses and multilane highways. 

11Additional census blocks within eighty feet of 

the initial groups also qualifying as impervious, but 

failing the shape index, are also identified for 

review. 

Census Bureau, but generally are part of 

the urban landscape. 

3. Inclusion of Noncontiguous Territory 

via Hops and Jumps 

Noncontiguous territory that meets 

the proposed housing density criteria 

specified in section B.1.a and b above, 

but is separated from an initial urban 

area core of 385 housing units or more, 

may be added via a hop along a road 

connection of no more than 0.5 miles. 

Multiple hops may be made along a 

single road connection, thus accounting 

for the nature of contemporary urban 

development, which often encompasses 

alternating patterns of residential and 

non-residential uses. 

After adding territory to an initial 

urban area core via hop connections, the 

Census Bureau will identify all urban 

area cores that have a housing unit 

count of 577 or more (consistent with 

the requirement for at least 1,500 people 

in the 2010 criteria) and add other 

qualifying territory via a jump 

connection.6 Jumps are used to connect 

densely settled noncontiguous territory 

separated from the urban area core by 

territory with low housing unit density 

measuring greater than 0.5 and no more 

than 1.5 road miles across. This process 

recognizes the existence of larger areas 

of non-residential uses or other territory 

with low housing unit density that do 

not provide a substantial barrier to 

interaction between outlying territory 

with high housing unit density and the 

urban area core. Because it is possible 

that any given densely developed area 

could qualify for inclusion in multiple 

cores via a jump connection, the 

identification of jumps in an automated 

process starts with the initial urban area 

core that has the largest total population 

and continues in descending order 

based on the total population of each 

initial urban area core. Only one jump 

is permitted along any given road 

connection. This limitation, which has 

been in place since the inception of the 

urban area delineation process for the 

1950 Census, prevents the artificial 

extension of urban areas over large 

distances that result in the inclusion of 

communities that are not commonly 

perceived as connected to the particular 

initial urban area core. Exempted 

territory is not taken into account when 

measuring road distances across hop 

and jump corridors. In the case of both 

hops and jumps, the intervening, low 

density block or blocks are not included 

in the urban area. 

4. Inclusion of Noncontiguous Territory 

Separated by Exempted Territory 

The Census Bureau proposes to 

identify and exempt territory in which 

residential development is substantially 

constrained or not possible due to either 

topographical or land use conditions.7

Such exempted territory offsets urban 

development due to particular land use, 

land cover, or topographic conditions. 

For the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau 

proposes the following to be exempted 

territory: 

• Bodies of water; and 

• Wetlands (belonging to one of eight 

wetlands class definitions 8) 

Noncontiguous qualifying territory 

would be added to a core via a hop or 

jump when separated by exempted 

territory, provided that it meets the 

following criteria: 

a. The road connection across the 

exempted territory (located on both 

sides of the road) is no greater than five 

miles, and 

b. The total length of the road 

connection between the initial urban 

area core and the noncontiguous 

territory, including the exempt distance 

and non-exempt hop or jump distances, 

is also no greater than five miles. 

The intervening, low density block or 

blocks of water or wetlands are not 

included in the urban area. 

5. Inclusion of Enclaves 

The Census Bureau will add enclaves 

(that is, nonqualifying area completely 

surrounded by area already qualified for 

inclusion as urban) within the urban 

area, provided that they are surrounded 

only by land area that qualified for 

inclusion in the urban area based on 

housing unit density criteria, and at 

least one of the following conditions is 

met: 

a. The area of the enclave must be less 

than five square miles. 

b. All area of the enclave is 

surrounded by territory that qualified 

for inclusion in the initial urban area 

core and is more than a straight-line 

distance of 1.5 miles from a land block 

that is not part of the urban area. 

Additional enclaves will be identified 

and included within the urban area if: 

a. The area of the enclave is less than 

five square miles, 

b. The enclave is surrounded by both 

land that qualified for inclusion in the 

urban area and water, and 

c. The length of the line of adjacency 

with the water is less than the length of 

the line of adjacency with the land. 

6. Inclusion of Airports 

After all territory has been added to 

the urban area core via hop and jump 

connections, and enclaves, the Census 

Bureau will then add whole census 

blocks that approximate the territory of 

airports, provided at least one of the 

blocks that represent the airport is 

within a distance of 0.5 miles of the 

edge of qualifying urban territory. An 

airport qualifies for inclusion if it is 

currently functional and one of the 

following criteria (per the Federal 

Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Air 

Carrier Activity Information System 9) 

applies: 

a. It is a qualified cargo airport. 

b. It has an annual passenger 

enplanement of at least 2,500 in any 

year between 2011 and 2019. 

7. Additional Nonresidential Urban 

Territory 

The Census Bureau will identify 

additional nonresidential urban-related 

territory that is noncontiguous, yet near 

the urban area. The Census Bureau 

recognizes the existence of large 

commercial and/or industrial land uses 

that are separated from an urban area by 

a relatively thin ‘‘green buffer,’’ small 

amount of undeveloped territory, and/or 

a narrow census block required for 

tabulation (such as a water feature, 

offset boundary, road median, or area 

between a road and rail feature). The 

Census Bureau will review all groups of 

census blocks whose members qualify 

as urban via the impervious surface 

criteria set forth in Section 1.b, have a 

total area of at least 0.15 square miles,10

and are within 0.25 miles of an urban 

area. A final review of these census 

blocks and surrounding territory 11 will 


tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with NOTICES
10242 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 

12 In situations where an urban area is only 

associated with one place name but is located in 

more than one state, the order of the state 

abbreviations will begin with the state within 

which the place is located and continue in 

descending order of population of each state’s share 

of the population of the urban area. 

determine whether to include this 

territory in an urban area. 

8. Splitting Large Agglomerations and 

Merging Individual Urban Areas 

Population growth and redistribution 

coupled with the automated urban area 

delineation methodology that will be 

used for the 2020 Census may result in 

large agglomerations of continuously 

developed territory that may encompass 

territory defined as separate urban areas 

for the 2010 Census. If such results 

occur, the Census Bureau will apply 

split and merge criteria. 

For the 2020 Census, the Census 

Bureau proposes using worker flow data 

(i.e., commuting flows) from the 

Longitudinal Employer-Household 

Dynamics (LEHD) Program to identify 

whether the agglomeration represents a 

single functionally integrated region or 

whether commuting patterns indicate 

the presence of distinct urban areas 

within the larger agglomeration. An 

agglomeration that encompasses two or 

more 2010 Census urban areas will be 

a candidate for splitting into smaller 

urban areas. This condition will trigger 

application of the following splitting 

criteria: 

a. Each pair of 2010 Census urban 

areas will be analyzed to determine 

whether to split or to remain merged. 

The 2010 urban area with the smaller 

population will be analyzed in relation 

to the 2010 urban area with the larger 

population. 

b. The 2010 Census urban area with 

the smaller population will remain in 

the agglomeration if at least 50 percent 

of its resident workers are employed 

within the larger 2010 Census urban 

area and at least 50 percent of the jobs 

in the smaller urban area are filled by 

workers residing within the larger 2010 

Census urban area. If either of these 

conditions are not met, the smaller 

urban area will be split from the 

agglomeration and categorized based on 

the worker flow data. 

c. The 2010 Census urban areas are 

organized into four categories: 

1. Worker flows are 50 percent or 

more to or from another 2010 Census 

urban area, but not in both directions; 

2. Worker flows are less than 50 

percent internal, but also less than 50 

percent with any other single 2010 

Census urban area; 

3. Adjacent 2010 Census urban areas 

that are in categories 1 or 2; 

4. Worker flows are 50 percent or 

more internal to the 2010 Census urban 

area. 

d. Community detection is performed 

on the LEHD worker flow data using the 

Leiden Algorithm to identify commuterbased communities. The resulting 

communities are used to adjust the 2010 

Census urban area split boundaries 

based on thresholds set to each of the 

four categories. However, for all 

categories, at least 50 percent of the 

worker flow must be internal to all 

resulting urban areas. The boundary 

between two urban areas may also be 

modified to avoid splitting an 

incorporated place, CDP, or minor civil 

division (MCD) between two urban 

areas at the time of delineation. 

e. Upon running the community 

detection algorithm, the resulting 

communities are used to adjust the 2010 

Census urban area split boundaries, and 

to identify the potential boundary 

between the resulting 2020 urban areas, 

starting with urban areas in the first 

category (below) and progressing to the 

fourth category (below). 

• Category 1. For the smaller of each 

urban area pair, adjacent communities 

(identified by the Leiden Algorithm) are 

added from the larger urban area until 

the internal worker flow of the smaller 

urban area is greater than 50 percent. 

Communities can only be added to the 

smaller urban area until the total 

housing unit count increases by less 

than 50 percent. 

• Category 2. For the smaller of each 

urban area pair, adjacent communities 

(identified by the Leiden Algorithm) are 

added from the larger urban area until 

the internal worker flow is greater than 

50 percent. 

• Category 3. If there is greater than 

10 percent worker flow between 

adjacent urban areas in categories 1 and 

2, then they will be combined as one 

urban area and the criteria of the lowest 

category will be applied. 

• Category 4. Split boundaries will be 

adjusted to their nearest community 

boundary. 

9. Assigning Urban Area Titles 

A clear, unambiguous title based on 

commonly recognized place names 

helps provide context for data users and 

ensures that the general location and 

setting of the urban area can be clearly 

identified and understood. The title of 

an urban area identifies the place(s) that 

is (are) the most populated within the 

urban area. All population requirements 

for places and MCDs apply to the 

portion of the entity’s population that is 

within the specific urban area being 

named. The Census Bureau proposes the 

following criteria to determine the title 

of an urban area: 

a. The most populous incorporated 

place within the urban area that has a 

population of 10,000 or more will be 

listed first in the urban area title. 

b. If there is no incorporated place 

with a population of 10,000 or more, the 

urban area title will include the name of 

the most populous incorporated place or 

CDP within the urban area that has at 

least 2,500 people. 

c. Up to two additional places, in 

descending order of population size, 

may be included in the title of an urban 

area, provided that the place meets one 

of the following criteria: 

a. The place has 250,000 or more 

people. 

b. The place has at least 2,500 people, 

and that population is at least twothirds of the urban area population of 

the most populous place in the urban 

area. 

If the urban area does not contain a 

place of at least 2,500 people, the 

Census Bureau will consider the name 

of the incorporated place, CDP, or MCD 

with the largest total population in the 

urban area, or a local name recognized 

for the area by the United States 

Geological Survey’s (USGS) Geographic 

Names Information System (GNIS), with 

preference given to names also 

recognized by the United States Postal 

Service (USPS). The urban area title will 

include the USPS abbreviation of the 

name of each state or statistically 

equivalent entity in which the urban 

area is located or extends. The order of 

the state abbreviations is the same as the 

order of the related place names in the 

urban area title.12

If a single place or MCD qualifies as 

the title of more than one urban area, 

the largest urban area will use the name 

of the place or MCD. The smaller urban 

area will have a title consisting of the 

place or MCD name and the direction 

(North, South, East, or West) of the 

smaller urban area as it relates 

geographically to the larger urban area 

with the same place or MCD name. 

If any title of an urban area duplicates 

the title of another urban area within the 

same state, or uses the name of an 

incorporated place, CDP, or MCD that is 

duplicated within a state, the name of 

the county that has most of the 

population of the largest place or MCD 

is appended, in parentheses, after the 

duplicate place or MCD name for each 

urban area. If there is no incorporated 

place, CDP, or MCD name in the urban 

area title, the name of the county having 

the largest total population residing in 

the urban area will be appended to the 

title. 


tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 32 / Friday, February 19, 2021 / Notices 10243 

C. Definitions of Key Terms 

Census Block: A geographic area 

bounded by visible and/or invisible 

features shown on a map prepared by 

the Census Bureau. A census block is 

the smallest geographic entity for which 

the Census Bureau tabulates decennial 

census data. 

Census Designated Place (CDP): A 

statistical geographic entity 

encompassing a concentration of 

population, housing, and commercial 

structures that is clearly identifiable by 

a single name, but is not within an 

incorporated place. CDPs are the 

statistical counterparts of incorporated 

places for distinct unincorporated 

communities. 

Census Tract: A small, relatively 

permanent statistical geographic 

subdivision of a county or county 

equivalent defined for the tabulation 

and publication of Census Bureau data. 

The primary goal of the census tract 

program is to provide a set of nationally 

consistent small, statistical geographic 

units, with stable boundaries that 

facilitate analysis of data across time. 

Contiguous: Refers to two or more 

areas sharing common boundaries. 

Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA): A 

statistical geographic entity defined by 

the U.S. Office of Management and 

Budget, consisting of the county or 

counties or equivalent entities 

associated with at least one core of at 

least 10,000 population, plus adjacent 

counties having a high degree of social 

and economic integration with the core 

as measured through commuting ties 

with the counties containing the core. 

Metropolitan and micropolitan 

statistical areas are the two types of core 

based statistical areas. 

Enclave: An area with population or 

housing unit density lower than the 

minimum for qualification that is 

completely surrounded by area already 

qualified for inclusion as urban. 

Exempted Territory: Pre-existing land 

cover that offsets the pattern of urban 

development. 

Group Quarters (GQs): A place where 

people live or stay, in a group living 

arrangement that is owned or managed 

by an entity or organization providing 

housing and/or services for the 

residents. These services may include 

custodial or medical care, as well as 

other types of assistance, and residency 

is commonly restricted to those 

receiving these services. This is not a 

typical household-type living 

arrangement. People living in GQs are 

usually not related to each other. GQs 

include such facilities as college 

residence halls, residential treatment 

centers, skilled nursing facilities, group 

homes, military barracks, correctional 

facilities, and workers’ dormitories. 

Impervious Surface: Paved, man-made 

surfaces, such as roads, parking lots, 

and rooftops. 

Indentation: Areas that are partially 

enveloped by, and likely to be affected 

by and integrated with, an already 

qualified urban territory. 

Incorporated Place: A type of 

governmental unit, incorporated under 

state law as a city, town (except in New 

England, New York, and Wisconsin), 

borough (except in Alaska and New 

York), or village, generally to provide 

specific governmental services for a 

concentration of people within legally 

prescribed boundaries. 

Metropolitan Statistical Area: A core 

based statistical area associated with at 

least one urban area that has a 

population of at least 50,000. The 

metropolitan statistical area comprises 

the central county or counties or 

equivalent entities containing the core, 

plus adjacent outlying counties having a 

high degree of social and economic 

integration with the central county or 

counties as measured through 

commuting. 

Micropolitan Statistical Area: A core 

based statistical area associated with at 

least one urban area that has a 

population of at least 10,000, but less 

than 50,000. The micropolitan statistical 

area comprises the central county or 

counties or equivalent entities 

containing the core, plus adjacent 

outlying counties having a high degree 

of social and economic integration with 

the central county or counties as 

measured through commuting. 

Minor Civil Division (MCD): The 

primary governmental or administrative 

division of a county or equivalent entity 

in 29 states and the Island Areas having 

legal boundaries, names, and 

descriptions. MCDs represent many 

different types of legal entities with a 

wide variety of characteristics, powers, 

and functions depending on the state 

and type of MCD. In some states, some 

or all of the incorporated places also 

constitute MCDs. 

New England City and Town Area 

(NECTA): A statistical geographic entity 

that is delineated by the U.S. Office of 

Management and Budget based on 

county subdivisions—usually cities and 

towns. NECTAs are defined using the 

same criteria as county-based CBSAs, 

and, similar to CBSAs, NECTAs are 

categorized as metropolitan or 

micropolitan. 

Noncontiguous: Two or more areas 

that do not share common boundaries, 

such that the areas are separated by 

intervening territory. 

Rural: Territory not defined as urban. 

Topologically Integrated Geographic 

Encoding and Referencing (TIGER): 

Database developed by the Census 

Bureau to support its mapping needs for 

the decennial census and other Census 

Bureau programs. The topological 

structure of the TIGER database defines 

the location and relationship of 

boundaries, streets, rivers, railroads, and 

other features to each other and to the 

numerous geographic areas for which 

the Census Bureau tabulates data from 

its censuses and surveys. 

Urban: Generally, densely developed 

territory, encompassing residential, 

commercial, and other non-residential 

urban land uses within which social 

and economic interactions occur. 

Urban Area Core: Continuous area 

qualified as urban prior to the 

application of the hop and jump criteria. 

Urban Cluster: A statistical 

geographic entity consisting of a densely 

settled core created from census tracts 

or blocks and contiguous qualifying 

territory that together have at least 2,500 

persons but fewer than 50,000 persons. 

Urbanized Area: A statistical 

geographic entity consisting of a densely 

settled core created from census tracts 

or blocks and adjacent densely settled 

territory that together have a minimum 

population of 50,000 people. 

Ron S. Jarmin, Acting Director, 

Bureau of the Census, approved the 

publication of this Notice in the Federal 

Register. 

Authority: Title 13, U.S.C., Chapter V. 

Dated: February 16, 2021. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2021–03412 Filed 2–18–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Foreign-Trade Zones Board 

[B–62–2020] 

Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) 266—Dane 

County, Wisconsin; Authorization of 

Production Activity; Coating Place, Inc. 

(Pharmaceuticals); Verona, Wisconsin 

On October 16, 2020, Coating Place, 

Inc. submitted a notification of 

proposed production activity to the FTZ 

Board for its facility within FTZ 266, in 

Verona, Wisconsin. 

The notification was processed in 

accordance with the regulations of the 

FTZ Board (15 CFR part 400), including 

notice in the Federal Register inviting 

public comment (85 FR 67709, October 

26, 2020). On February 16, 2021, the 


tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with NOTICES