Are CITYs incorporated places?

USA
1

Hey,

I would like to get a better understanding of the “CITY” variable in the full count censuses.

  • Are cities always incorporated places — or could a place that is large enough, but not incorporated also show up as a city?
  • For the 1940 full count census there is no comparability section, is it the same as in the 1950 census or as in the 1920 and 1930 censuses?

Thanks

2

We are looking into your questions and will respond as soon as we have relevant information to share. Thank you for your patience.

3

The identified cities are generally consistent with U.S. Census “place” definitions. For an explanation and history of the concept, see Chapter 9 in the Census Bureau’s Geographic Areas Reference Manual.

Identification of places in CITY for the 1940 full count data generally follows the same rule as in the 1950 full count with incorporated places with a population of at least 10,000 being identified. There are some inadvertent departures from these identification criteria. First, there are some identified cities with populations of less than 10,000. Additionally, there are some respondents living in incorporated places with populations of more than 10,000, but for whom CITY is not identified (i.e., CITYPOP>100 and CITY=0). Note that the population of each city is reported (in hundreds) in the variable CITYPOP. This is the result of our roster of identified cities being carried over from previous years of census data, when those areas had not yet met the population threshold for identification.

We will address both of these issues in a future release of the 1940 full count census data.

4

Thank you for your reply. I find the formulation “consistent with U.S. Census “place” definitions.” somewhat confusing. As the census place definition itself uses the word “city” — cities are a subset of incorporated places, which are a subset of census places. So, does this mean:

  • CITY == Census place, i.e. every (let’s ignore the inadvertent departures) census place that passes the population cut-off (e.g. 10.000) shows up as a city in this variable

  • OR does it mean that the variable CITY refers to the same thing called “city” in the documentation you linked to?

    Thanks again

5

The variable CITY does not only identify actual cities, but also non-city places. Your first bullet point is correct. Keep in mind that there are some areas with larger populations that do not fall under the Census definition of “places,” incorporated or not, including towns in New England states, New York, and Wisconsin; such places will not be identified in the CITY variable.