local government, for the United States, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas in aggregate, and individual metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The statistical tables included show 2000 population data for incorporated places as of January 1, 2003, and metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas as of June 6, 2003.
FIGURES AND STATISTICAL TABLES
Figure 1. Map of Population Living Inside Incorporated Places by Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area: 2000
Figure 2. Census Regions and Divisions of the United States
Table 1. Population Inside and Outside Incorporated Places: 2000
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Table 2. Population Inside and Outside Core Based Statistical Areas by Incorporation Status
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Table 3. Population by Incorporation Status: 2000, and Number of Governmental Units: 2003 for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas
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Table 4a. Metro Areas with the Most Governmental Units: 2003
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Table 4b. Number of Governmental units for the Ten Largest Metro Areas: 2003
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Table 5. Metro Areas With 100 or More Governmental Units: 2003, and More Than 40 Percent Population Outside Incorporated Places: 2000
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An incorporated place is a geographic area with legally defined municipal boundaries under the laws of the state in which it is located. The most common legal descriptors for such places are city, town, borough, and village, though other, less common examples do exist. Typically, each incorporated place has a set of elected or appointed officials and legally prescribed powers to levy taxes and raise revenue, and to provide local services such as water, sewer, sanitation, fire and police protection, schools, and recreational facilities. In unincorporated areas, such services are typically provided by either the county or minor civil division government, or sometimes by a nearby incorporated place (U.S. Census Bureau, 1994).
The laws for establishing an incorporated place vary widely by state, as do the laws governing how a place can modify its boundaries through annexation, de-annexation, merging, or other procedures (Palmer and Lindsey, 2001). This variation in the legal landscape, along with varying rates of growth across incorporated and unincorporated places by region, results in a varied distribution of population by incorporation status across states and regions (Johnson et al., 2004).
While the distribution of population inside and outside incorporated places has been examined at the national, regional, and state levels (Johnson et al., 2004), little research has focused on this distribution inside and outside metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. Knowledge of how residents are distributed across incorporated and unincorporated jurisdictions within metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, together with data on the number of local government entities in each area, can provide an opportunity to identify areas where high levels of local geopolitical fragmentation exist. These are areas where a relatively high number of local government jurisdictions (typically incorporated suburbs of large cities) exist in close proximity to one another, often with adjacent territorial boundaries. Such areas may present challenges not only to the local jurisdictions directly responsible for service provision, but also to state and federal policies directed towards the provision of local services.
This paper seeks to provide a foundation for future research by presenting Census 2000 population data for the area inside and outside incorporated places at the national level, as well as for individual metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The number of local governmental entities (county, governmentally active minor civil division, and incorporated place) in 2003 is also presented for each metro and micro area.
April 1, 2000 population data tabulated for all incorporated places as of January 1, 2003 were obtained via the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program. T