Geography

Question

When the census reports population for a county, does that number include the incorporated areas (municipalities) that report their population separately? For example County X has a pop of 100,000. Does that include City A, B, and C which each have pops of 10,000?

Answer

Hello Monica,<BR><BR>The short answer is yes, the census population count for a county will include the counts for any municipalities within that county.<BR><BR>Every address in the United States is part of several&nbsp;geographic entities.&nbsp; Some of these are the same as areas everyone is familiar with -- states, cities, and counties.&nbsp; Others are areas the Bureau of the Census has invented in order to collect better statistics, like census tracts and Metropolitan Statistical Areas.&nbsp; But the Bureau of the Census keeps track of them all, so that the smaller areas nest properly inside larger areas.&nbsp; Which means that a population report for a state will include counts for every geographic entity within that state -- but also that each person will be counted only once.<BR><BR>If you need to know more than this about census geography, try the definitions of geographic entities at <A href=http://www.census.gov/geo/www/geo_defn.html">http://www.census.gov/geo/www/geo_defn.html</A>&nbsp;(especially the "introduction--Geographic presentation of data") or the information about how population counts are made between decennial censuses at <A href=http://www.census.gov/popest/estimates.php">http://www.census.gov/popest/estimates.php</A>&nbsp;(especially under the "Estimates Data" tab).<BR><BR>Hope that helps a bit,<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Shelly Sommer<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; INSTAAR Information Center<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; University of Colorado, Boulder<BR> census geography<BR>census data<BR>population statistics http://vrd.askvrd.org/services/answerschema.xml