Civil township

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New England and New York

In New England and New York, states are generally subdivided into towns and cities, which are municipalities that provide most local services. With the exception of a few remote areas of New Hampshire and Vermont and about half of Maine, all of New England lies within the borders of an incorporated municipality. New England has counties, though in southern New England, they are strictly used as dividing lines for judicial systems and statistical purposes, while in northern New England, they often handle other limited functions, such as law enforcement, education and some public facilities in addition to judicial systems. New England also has cities, most of which are towns whose residents have voted to replace the town meeting form of government with a city form. Maine has a third type of township called a plantation, which previously existed in other New England states, that has more limited self-governance than other New England towns.

In portions of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, county subdivisions that are not incorporated are occasionally called townships, or by other terms such as "gore", "grant", "location", or "purchase".

The

Finally, New York and Vermont also have villages, which are smaller communities lying within the boundaries of a town that provide additional government services not provided by their parent town, such as sewage, fire, law enforcement, garbage collection, public facilities, water and building code enforcement. In Vermont, most current cities were actually former villages that broke off from their parent town. Connecticut has boroughs and non-consolidated cities, although these communities are not as autonomous as villages in New York and Vermont, and today there are only eight non-consolidated boroughs (plus the community of Groton Long Point) and one non-consolidated city.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey

A

A New Jersey township is similar, in that it is a form of municipal government equal in status to a village, town, borough, or city, and provides similar services to a Pennsylvania township, and varies in size from one-tenth (Shrewsbury Twp.) to one hundred (Jackson Twp.) square miles.

Southern states

In the Southern U.S., outside cities and towns there is generally no local government other than the county.

Arkansas and North Carolina

Arkansas townships are the divisions of a county. Each township includes unincorporated areas; some may have incorporated cities or towns within part of their boundaries. Arkansas townships have limited purposes in modern times. However, the U.S. census does list Arkansas population based on townships (sometimes referred to as "county subdivisions" or "minor civil divisions"). Townships are also of value for historical purposes in terms of genealogical research. Each town or city is within one or more townships in an Arkansas county based on census maps and publications.^[7]

As of 2012, there were 16,360 organized town or township governments in the following 21 states:^[13]

States without civil townships

There were 29 states without organized town or township governments as of 2012:^[13]

States which once had but no longer have civil townships

• California had townships at statehood. County boards of supervisors had the authority to create, consolidate, or abolish townships as late as the 1920s.^[14] (See Category:Former townships in California.) A system of township assessors was established in some counties,^[15] but under the 1879 Constitution, townships were limited to judicial and law enforcement districts rather than administrative ones.^[16] As of 1967, every county was divided into townships for electoral purposes,^[17] but this was no longer the case by 1977.^[18] San Joaquin County's legal code continues to define that county's townships, although it does not delegate any powers or responsibilities to them.^[19]
• Iowa had 1,608 townships in 1942. By 1952, their responsibilities and functions had essentially been absorbed by their counties, were considered "vestigial", and were no longer counted.^[20] Townships exist in Iowa, but are counted as administrative divisions of their counties and are not counted as having separate governments by the United States Census Bureau.
• Oklahoma did have civil townships statewide upon statehood. On August 5, 1913, Oklahoma voters passed the Oklahoma Township Amendment, also known as State Question 58. This allowed the creation or abolishment of townships on a county by county basis.^[21] By the mid-1930s, all counties had voted to abolish them.^[22] Their former names and boundaries were used for United States census counting purposes and census documentation through 1960, after which Census Counting Divisions (CCDs) were used.^[23][24]
• South Carolina had 2 townships in 1952, those of Folly Island and Sullivan's Island.^[25]
• The 1870 Constitution of Virginia required the division of counties into townships, but an amendment in 1874 converted those townships into magisterial districts.^[26]
• Washington had 70 townships in 1952, in only Spokane and Whatcom counties, for administration of local roads.^[27]

Canada

The provinces of Eastern Canada have, or have had, divisions that are analogous to the townships of the United States.

Ontario and Quebec continue to have townships that subdivide their respective counties.

Local government was introduced into

• Township (United States)
• Survey township
• Charter township
• Metro township
• County (United States)
• Political divisions of the United States
• Minor civil division
• Hundred (country subdivision)
• Township for other divisions called "township"
• Unorganized territory
• List of subnational entities

References