The Midwest has many incorporated places, and their relationship to MCDs varies from one State to another. In North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, all incorporated places are independent of MCDs, as are 842 of the 854 incorporated places in Minnesota. All places are dependent on MCDs in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, except for Chicago, which consists of two MCD equivalents, and St. Louis, which is an independent city. In the remaining States, some places are dependent, others are independent. In Iowa, 52 of the 953 incorporated places are independent of MCDs, in Kansas 123 of 627, in Michigan 272 of 534, in Nebraska 79 of 535, and in Ohio 218 of 941.
In Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio, many of the larger incorporated places are legally coextensive with a single township. There are 19 such coextensive city-township combinations in Illinois, and in all but one case, the township has a separate government that is distinct from the one for the place. Based on an agreement between the Census Bureau and the States of Iowa and Ohio, the Census Bureau does not include the township in decennial census data tabulations when an incorporated place and a township coincide. This makes it easier to find the place in census listings and simplifies the gathering of MCD information through the BAS, since State and local governments tend not to recognize the existence of many of these nonfunctional townships. Nebraska has ten election precincts that are coextensive with a single incorporated place, and Illinois has five. Missouri has four nonfunctional townships coextensive with a single incorporated place.
In Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, the Census Bureau considers other types of entities as MCD county subdivisions. These MCDs are administrative or geographic entities and do not function as local governments. In these States, the only functioning governments below the county level are incorporated places; outside of the incorporated places, the county or State government provides services to the residents of these MCDs.
