17324 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 66 / Friday, April 6, 2007 / Notices 

1 In Alaska, census subareas are equivalents of 

CCDs. For the purposes of this notice, the term 

‘‘CCD’’ will also refer to census subareas in Alaska. 

2For Census Bureau purposes, the term ‘‘county’’ 

includes parishes in Louisiana; boroughs and 

census areas in Alaska; independent cities in 

Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia; districts 

in American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands; 

municipalities in the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands; municipios in Puerto 

Rico; and the areas constituting the District of 

Columbia and Guam. This notice will refer to all of 

these entities collectively as ‘‘counties.’’ 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Bureau of the Census 

[Docket Number 070111009–7011–01] 

Census County Division (CCD) and 

Equivalent Entities Program for the 

2010 Census—Proposed Change and 

Proposed Criteria 

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed program 

revisions and request for comments. 

SUMMARY: CCDs and equivalent entities 

are statistical geographic entities 

established cooperatively by the Bureau 

of the Census (Census Bureau) and 

officials of state and local governments 

in 22 states 1 where minor civil 

divisions (MCDs) either do not exist or 

are unsatisfactory for reporting 

decennial census data. The primary goal 

of the CCD program has been to 

establish and maintain a set of 

subcounty 2 units that have stable 

boundaries and recognizable names. 

The Census Bureau is publishing this 

notice in the Federal Register to request 

comments from the public and other 

government agencies. The Census 

Bureau will respond to the comments 

received as part of the publication of 

final criteria in the Federal Register. 

After the final criteria are published in 

the Federal Register, the Census Bureau 

will offer designated governments or 

organizations an opportunity to review 

and, if necessary, suggest updates to the 

boundaries and attributes of the CCDs in 

their geographic area under the 

Participant Statistical Areas Program 

(PSAP). In addition to CCDs, the 

program also encompasses the review 

and update of census tracts, block 

groups, and census designated places. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

submitted on or before July 5, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Please direct all written 

comments on this proposed program to 

the Director, U.S. Census Bureau, Room 

8H001, mail stop 0100, Washington, DC 

20233–0001. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information on 

this proposed program should be 

directed to Michael Ratcliffe, Chief, 

Geographic Standards and Criteria 

Branch, Geography Division, U.S. 

Census Bureau, via e-mail at 

geo.psap.list@census.gov or telephone at 

301–763–3056. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. History 

When CCDs were introduced prior to 

the 1950 Census, few alternatives were 

available for the provision of statistical 

data related to relatively stable, 

subcounty geographic units. Census 

tracts were defined in only a subset of 

metropolitan area counties; MCDs 

existed in all counties, but in some 

states MCD boundaries changed 

frequently enough that they were not 

useful for comparing statistical data 

from one decade to another. 

For much of the period from the 1950 

Census through the 1980 Census, county 

subdivisions (MCDs and CCDs) 

provided the only subcounty unit of 

geography at which data users could 

obtain statistical data for complete 

coverage of counties nationwide. The 

introduction of block-numbering areas 

(BNAs) in counties without census 

tracts for the 1990 Census offered an 

alternate subcounty entity for which 

data could be tabulated. For Census 

2000, the Census Bureau introduced 

census tracts nationwide (in many 

counties BNAs were simply relabeled as 

‘‘census tracts’’) and the greater 

dissemination of, and ability to analyze, 

data at the census tract-level made CCDs 

less necessary as statistical reporting 

units. 

II. General Principles and Guidelines 

for CCDs for the 2010 Census 

A. General Principles and Guidelines 

1. The primary goal of the CCD 

program has been to establish and 

maintain a set of subcounty units that 

have stable boundaries and recognizable 

names. The boundaries of CCDs usually 

coincide with visible features or stable, 

significant legal boundaries, such as the 

boundary of an American Indian 

reservation, federally-managed land, or 

conjoint incorporated places, and have 

no legal status; there are no officials 

elected to serve traditional local 

governmental functions. 

2. A CCD usually represents a single 

contiguous area consisting of one or 

more communities, trading centers, or, 

in some instances, major land uses that 

are relatively compact in shape. 

3. The area of a CCD has a 

relationship to the existing census 

tracts, usually consisting of one or more 

contiguous census tracts or having two 

or more CCDs nesting within a single 

census tract. The boundaries of CCDs 

generally align with census tract 

boundaries. Note that a county with a 

population less than the optimum 

population for a census tract (less than 

4,000 people) may contain more CCDs 

than census tracts. For example, 

McCone County, Montana, which has a 

2005 estimated population of 1,805, 

contains only one census tract, which 

covers the full extent of the county, but 

is divided into two CCDs. 

4. Since the 1950s, the Census Bureau 

has worked with state and local officials 

to replace MCDs with CCDs for the 

collection, presentation, and analysis of 

census statistics, particularly in states in 

which MCDs do not provide 

governmental services and functions, 

and in which MCD boundaries tend to 

change between decennial censuses. To 

date, 22 states have shifted to CCDs: 

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, 

Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, 

Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, 

Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, 

Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, 

Texas, Utah, Washington, and 

Wyoming. 

B. Proposed Changes to the CCD 

Program 

The Census Bureau has noted that 

data users are not requesting or using 

data for CCDs to the extent they did in 

the past, preferring instead to analyze 

and aggregate data by census tract and 

block group. Some data users may view 

the introduction of CCDs in hierarchical 

tabulations as hampering data 

extraction. Therefore, if interest no 

longer exists and data are not used, or 

the geography introduces unnecessary 

complexity in the hierarchy, the Census 

Bureau will consider eliminating CCDs 

for the 2010 Census. 

Therefore, the Census Bureau is 

interested in ascertaining whether data 

users still find CCDs to be a useful 

geographic entity for reporting and 

analyzing statistical data, and if so, 

specific examples of CCD usage. In 

addition, and related to this request for 

information, the Census Bureau 

proposes the following options for 

CCDs: 

1. Eliminate the CCD concept; do not 

replace with another type of subcounty 

geographic unit. If this proposal is 

adopted, the Census Bureau will not 

replace the CCD concept with another 

type of county subdivision entity (i.e., 

MCDs or some other type of legal, 

administrative, or statistical area). As a 

result, there would be no geographic 

entity defined at the county subdivision 

level of the census geographic hierarchy 

for those areas where CCDs existed 

previously. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 66 / Friday, April 6, 2007 / Notices 17325 

3For Census Bureau purposes, the United States 

includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

4For Census Bureau purposes, the Island Areas 

include the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, 

the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands, and Guam. 

2. Retain the CCD concept. The 

Census Bureau will retain the CCD 

concept if data user comments indicate 

that CCDs continue to be useful 

geographic units for reporting statistical 

data, or if comments indicate that 

creation of a gap in the census 

geographic hierarchy is not favorable 

(see option #1 above). If the CCD 

concept is retained, the Census Bureau 

will strongly encourage partners in the 

program to maintain CCD boundaries as 

defined for Census 2000, to the extent 

possible, in order to preserve 

comparability of data from one decade 

to another. 

The Census Bureau may consider 

other proposals, for example, to 

eliminate CCDs on a state-by-state basis. 

C. CCD Criteria for the 2010 Census 

The criteria proposed herein apply to 

the United States, 3 including American 

Indian reservations and off-reservation 

trust lands, Puerto Rico, and the Island. 

Areas. 4 The Census Bureau may modify 

and, if necessary, reject any proposals 

for census tracts that do not meet the 

established criteria. In addition, the 

Census Bureau reserves the right to 

modify the boundaries and attributes of 

CCDs as needed to maintain geographic 

relationships before the final tabulation 

geography is set for the 2010 Census. 

Should CCDs be retained for the 2010 

Census, the Census Bureau will require 

that CCDs (1) have community 

orientation, (2) have visible and/or 

stable boundaries, (3) conform to census 

tract boundaries, and (4) have 

recognizable names. 

1. Community Orientation 

Each CCD should focus on one or 

more communities or places and 

encompass in some fashion the 

additional surrounding territory that is 

served by these. The definition of 

community should take into account 

factors, such as production, marketing, 

consumption, and the integrating factor 

of local institutions. 

The community in which a CCD is 

centered usually is an incorporated 

place or an unincorporated community, 

which might be identified as a census 

designated place. In some cases, the 

CCD may center on a major area of 

significantly different land use or 

ownership, such as a large military base 

or American Indian reservation. A CCD 

should always comprise a reasonably 

compact, continuous land area. 

2. Visible, Stable Boundaries 

To make the location of CCD 

boundaries less ambiguous, CCD 

boundaries should follow, wherever 

possible, visible and identifiable 

features. The use of visible features 

makes it easier to locate and identify 

CCD boundaries over time, as the 

locations of many visible features in the 

landscape tend to change infrequently, 

making data collection easier and more 

reliable while reducing the possibility 

for data allocation errors. The Census 

Bureau also permits the use of state, 

county, and census tract boundaries, 

defined federally-recognized American 

Indian reservations, and the boundaries 

of federally, state, or locally managed 

land. 

The following features are acceptable: 

a. County boundaries (always a CCD 

boundary); 

b. Census tract boundaries, which 

usually follow visible, perennial, 

natural, and cultural features, such as 

roads, rivers, canals, railroads, or aboveground high-tension power lines; 

c. Legally-defined, federallyrecognized American Indian reservation 

boundaries; 

d. The boundaries of federally, state, 

or locally managed land, such as 

National Parks, National Monuments, 

National Forests, other types of large 

parks or forests, airports, marine ports, 

penitentiaries/prisons, military 

installations, or other facilities; and 

e. Conjoint city limits (in certain 

situations). 

f. When the above types of features 

are not available for use as CCD 

boundaries, the Census Bureau may, at 

its discretion, approve other 

nonstandard, visible features, such as 

ridge lines, above-ground pipelines, 

streams, or fence lines. The Census 

Bureau may also accept, on a case-bycase basis, the boundaries of selected 

nonstandard and potentially nonvisible 

features, such as the boundaries of 

cemeteries, golf courses, glaciers, or the 

straight-line extensions of visible 

features and other lines-of-sight. 

3. Census Tract Boundaries, CCD 

Population Size 

Whenever possible, a CCD should 

encompass one or more contiguous 

census tracts. Therefore, CCD 

boundaries should be consistent with 

census tract boundaries. Population size 

is not as an important consideration 

with CCDs as it is with census tracts. 

Historically, CCDs have ranged from a 

few hundred people (in selected 

situations) to more than one million. 

However, data quality and availability 

may be factors that local governments 

and planners should consider in 

defining geographic areas. As a general 

rule, estimates of demographic 

characteristics of small areas from the 

American Community Survey and the 

Puerto Rico Community Survey will be 

subject to higher variances than 

comparable estimates for areas with 

larger populations. In addition, the 

Census Bureau’s disclosure rules may 

have the effect of restricting the 

availability and amount of data for areas 

with small populations. Therefore, 

CCDs that are new for the 2010 Census 

must have a population of at least 1,200 

people, the minimum for a census tract. 

Adhering to this minimum threshold 

will improve data reliability and 

minimize the application of disclosure 

avoidance methodologies (e.g., data 

suppression or data swapping) to 

tabulated data. 

4. Name Identification 

A CCD usually should be named after 

the largest population center or place 

within it (e.g., Taos, Chimayo, or Ohkay 

Owingeh, NM). Sometimes a CCD name 

may represent the two largest centers 

(e.g., Mount Pleasant-Moroni, UT). In 

some situations, a CCD may be named 

after a prominent physical feature (e.g., 

Castle Rock, CO, and Mount Rainier, 

WA) or a distinctive region within the 

county (e.g., Death Valley, CA; 

Everglades and Lower Keys, FL; and 

Tellico Plains, TN). In other cases, a 

CCD name may consist of the county 

name and a compass direction to 

indicate the portion of the county in the 

CCD, or a place name and a compass 

direction to give the CCD location 

relative to the place. The directional 

indicator usually precedes a county 

name (e.g., Northeast Cobb, GA). If a 

place name is used, the directional 

indicator follows it (e.g., Del Rio 

Northwest, TX). In all cases, the 

objective is to clearly identify the extent 

of the CCD by means of an area name 

since CCD names always should be 

meaningful to data users. Any name 

used as a CCD name must also be 

recognized by the Board on Geographic 

Names for federal use and appear in the 

Geographic Names Information System 

maintained by the U.S. Geological 

Survey. This includes any individual 

names combined to make a hyphenated 

CCD name. 

III. Definitions of Key Terms 

American Indian reservation—A 

federally-recognized American Indian 

land area with boundaries established 

by final treaty, statute, executive order, 

and/or court order, and over which a 

federally-recognized American Indian 

tribal government has governmental 


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17326 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 66 / Friday, April 6, 2007 / Notices 

1The term CDP includes communidades and 

zonas urbanas in Puerto Rico. 

authority. Along with reservations, 

designations such as colonies, 

communities, pueblos, rancherias, and 

reserves apply to American Indian 

reservations. 

Block Group—A statistical 

subdivision of a census tract consisting 

of all census blocks whose numbers 

begin with the same digit in a census 

tract. 

Census block—A geographic area 

bounded by visible and/or invisible 

features in the Census Bureau’s 

Topographically Integrated Geographic 

Encoding and Referencing system, and 

shown on maps prepared by the Census 

Bureau. A block is the smallest 

geographic entity for which the Census 

Bureau tabulates decennial census data. 

Census designated place—A statistical 

geographic entity with a concentration 

of population, housing, and commercial 

structures that is identifiable by name, 

but is not within an incorporated place. 

Census tract—A small, relatively 

permanent statistical geographic 

division of a county 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. 

Conjoint—A description of a 

boundary shared by two adjacent 

geographic areas. 

Contiguous—A description of 

geographic areas that are adjacent to one 

another, sharing either a common 

boundary or point. 

Federally managed land—Territory 

that is federally owned and 

administered by an agency of the U.S. 

federal government, such as the 

National Park Service, Bureau of Land 

Management, or Department of Defense. 

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. 

Minor civil division—The primary 

governmental or administrative division 

of a county in 28 states, Puerto Rico, 

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. 

Nonvisible feature—A map feature 

that is not visible on the ground, such 

as a city or county boundary through 

space, a property line running through 

space, a short line-of-sight extension of 

a road, or a point-to-point line of sight. 

Visible feature—A map feature that 

can be seen on the ground, such as a 

road, railroad track, major above-ground 

transmission line or pipeline, stream, 

shoreline, fence, sharply defined 

mountain ridge, or cliff. A nonstandard 

visible feature is a feature that may not 

be clearly defined on the ground (such 

as a ridge), may be seasonal (such as an 

intermittent stream), or may be 

relatively impermanent (such as a 

fence). The Census Bureau generally 

requests verification that nonstandard 

features pose no problem in their 

location during fieldwork. 

Executive Order 12866 

This notice has been determined to be 

not significant under Executive Order 

12866. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

This program notice does not 

represent a collection of information 

subject to the requirements of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 

Chapter 35. 

Dated: April 3, 2007. 

Charles Louis Kincannon, 

Director, Bureau of the Census. 

[FR Doc. E7–6464 Filed 4–5–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Bureau of the Census 

[Docket Number 070104002–7003–01] 

Census Designated Place (CDP) 

Program for the 2010 Census—

Proposed Criteria 

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed program and 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: Census designated places 

(CDPs) 1 are statistical geographic 

entities representing closely settled, 

unincorporated communities that are 

locally recognized and identified by 

name. They are the statistical 

equivalents of incorporated places, with 

the primary differences being the lack of 

both a legally defined boundary and an 

active, functioning governmental 

structure, chartered by the state and 

administered by elected officials. CDPs 

defined for the 2010 Census also will be 

used to tabulate American Community 

Survey, Puerto Rico Community Survey, 

and Economic Census data after 2010, 

and potentially data from other Bureau 

of the Census (Census Bureau) censuses 

and surveys. 

The Census Bureau is publishing this 

notice in the Federal Register to request 

comments from the public and other 

government agencies. The Census 

Bureau will respond to the comments 

received as part of the publication of 

final criteria in the Federal Register. 

After the final criteria are published in 

the Federal Register, the Census Bureau 

will offer designated governments or 

organizations an opportunity to review 

and, if necessary, suggest updates to the 

boundaries and attributes of the CDPs in 

their geographic area under the 

Participant Statistical Areas Program 

(PSAP). In addition to CDPs, the 

program also encompasses the review 

and update of census tracts, block 

groups, and census county divisions. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

submitted on or before July 5, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Please direct all written 

comments on this proposed program to 

the Director, U.S. Census Bureau, Room 

8H001, mail stop 0100, Washington, DC 

20233–0001. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information on 

this proposed program should be 

directed to Michael Ratcliffe, Chief, 

Geographic Standards and Criteria 

Branch, Geography Division, U.S. 

Census Bureau, via e-mail at 

geo.psap.list@census.gov or telephone at 

301–763–3056. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. History 

The CDP concept and delineation 

criteria have evolved over the past five 

decades in response to data user needs 

for place-level data. This evolution has 

taken into account differences in the 

way in which places were perceived, 

and the propensity for places to 

incorporate in various states. The result, 

over time, has been an increase in the 

number and types of unincorporated 

communities identified as CDPs, as well 

as increasing consistency in the 

relationship between the CDP concept 

and the kinds of places encompassed by 

the incorporated place category, or a 

compromise between localized 

perceptions of place and a concept that 

would be familiar to data users 

throughout the United States, Puerto 

Rico, and the Island Areas. 


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