Minor civil division
Minor civil division (MCD) is a term used by the
United States Census Bureau to designate the primary
governmental and/or
administrative divisions of a
county, such as a
civil township,
precinct, or
magisterial district. MCDs exist in 28 states and the
District of Columbia.
In 20 states, all or many MCD's are general-purpose governmental units:
Connecticut,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Kansas,
Maine,
Massachusetts,
Michigan,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
Nebraska,
New Hampshire,
New Jersey,
New York,
North Dakota,
Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island,
South Dakota,
Vermont, and
Wisconsin. Most of these MCD's are legally designated as
towns or
townships.
The type of government may range from inoperative, to weak governmental authority, to strong governments that are comparable or equivalent to incorporated municipalities. Since MCDs appear in a different category than incorporated places, this has caused some confusion in states where the MCDs have strong governments, such as in
Michigan, the
New England states,
New Jersey,
New York, and
Pennsylvania.
In states that do not have MCDs, the Census Bureau designates
Census County Divisions (CCDs). In states that use MCDs, when any portion of the state is not covered by an MCD, the Census Bureau creates additional entities as
unorganized territories, that it treats as equivalent to MCDs for statistical purposes.
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Chapter 8: County Subdivisions from the Census Bureau's
Geographic Areas Reference Manual (PDF)
