Township (United States)
Encyclopedia
A township in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 is a small geographic area. Township
Township
The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...

s range in size from 6 to 54 square miles (15.6 km² to 140.4 km²), with 36 square miles (93.2 km²) being the norm.

The term is used in three ways.
  1. A survey township is simply a geographic reference used to define property location for deed
    Deed
    A deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...

    s and grants as surveyed and platted by the General Land Office
    General Land Office
    The General Land Office was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department of the Treasury...

     (GLO). A survey township is nominally six miles square or 23,040 acres.
  2. A civil township is a unit of local government. Civil townships are generally given a name, sometimes abbreviated "Twp".
  3. A charter township is similar to a civil township, found only in the state of Michigan
    Michigan
    Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

    . Provided certain conditions are met, a charter township is mostly exempt from annexation from contiguous cities or villages, and carries additional rights and responsibilities of home rule
    Home rule
    Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....

    .

Survey townships



Survey townships are generally referred to by a number based on the Public Land Survey System
Public Land Survey System
The Public Land Survey System is a method used in the United States to survey and identify land parcels, particularly for titles and deeds of rural, wild or undeveloped land. Its basic units of area are the township and section. It is sometimes referred to as the rectangular survey system,...

 (PLSS). A reference to the township will look something like "Township 2 North Range 3 East", and the use is fully explained in the PLSS article. Townships were originally surveyed and platted by the US General Land Office using contracted private survey crews and are marked on the U.S. Geological Survey maps of the United States of America.

Townships are normally a square approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) on a side with cardinal
Cardinal direction
The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...

 boundaries conforming to meridians and parallels, containing thirty-six sections of one square mile each. The northern and western most tier of sections in each township are designed to take up the convergence of the east and west township boundary lines or range lines, as well as any error in the survey measurements, and therefore these sections vary slightly from being one square mile or 640 acres. Survey Townships exist in some form in all states other than the original 13 colonies, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

, and Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

. Irregular or fractual townships with fewer than a full 36 sections are created where full townships cannot be laid out due to existing senior boundaries such as Spanish/Mexican Ranchos, Indian Reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

s, State boundary lines, etc.

This kind of township is similar to geographic townships in the Province of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada.

Civil townships

The township government is a local unit of government, originally rural in application. They are geographic and political subdivisions of a county
County (United States)
In the United States, a county is a geographic subdivision of a state , usually assigned some governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states; Louisiana is divided into parishes and Alaska into boroughs. Parishes and boroughs are called "county-equivalents" by the U.S...

. The township is identified by a name, such as Raritan Township, New Jersey
Raritan Township, New Jersey
Raritan Township is a Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the township population was 22,185...

. The responsibilities and the form of the township government is specified by the state legislature.

The most common form of township government has an elected board of trustees or supervisors. Some additional offices, such as Clerk or Constable, may also be elected. The most common responsibilities include such things as road maintenance, land use planning, and trash collection. Many townships in Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania provide police and fire protection, similar to what an incorporated city would provide.

In most midwestern states, a civil township often corresponds to a single survey township, but in many cases, especially in less populated areas, the civil township may be made up of all or portions of several survey townships. In areas where there are natural features such as a lakeshore or large river, the civil township boundaries may follow the geographic features rather than the survey township. Municipalities such as cities may incorporate or annex land in a township, which is then generally removed from township government. Only one state, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, has township governments covering all its area and population. In other states, some types of municipalities like villages remain a part of the township while cities are not. As urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s expand, a civil township may entirely disappear—see, for example, Mill Creek Township, Hamilton County, Ohio
Mill Creek Township, Hamilton County, Ohio
Mill Creek Township is a former township of south central Hamilton County, Ohio that was largely absorbed in the late Nineteenth century by the annexation of suburban villages and outlying settlements by the City of Cincinnati. It extended north from the Ohio River along both banks of the Mill...

. In other expanding urban areas, the township may incorporate itself into a city; this can be seen in the numerous square cities of Hennepin
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2010 the population was 1,152,425. Its county seat is Minneapolis. It is by far the most populous county in Minnesota; more than one in five Minnesotans live...

, Anoka
Anoka County, Minnesota
Anoka County is the fourth-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The county is bordered by the counties of Isanti on the north, Chisago and Washington on the east, Hennepin and Ramsey on the south, Sherburne on the west, and the Mississippi River on the southwest.As of 2010, Anoka...

, and Washington
Washington County, Minnesota
Washington County is a county established in 1849 in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population was 238,136. Its county seat is Stillwater.-History:...

 Counties in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. The Montgomery County, Ohio
Montgomery County, Ohio
Montgomery County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. The population was 535,153 in the 2010 Census. It was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 while attempting to capture Quebec City, Canada. The county seat is Dayton...

 cities of Trotwood
Trotwood, Ohio
Trotwood is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. The population was 27,431 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is served by the Trotwood-Madison City School District...

 (1996, formerly Madison Township), Huber Heights
Huber Heights, Ohio
Huber Heights is a city in Montgomery, Miami, and Greene Counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. Huber Heights's motto is "America's largest community of brick homes." The city is named for Charles Huber, the developer who constructed a number of the houses that would later comprise the city. Suburban...

 (1980, Wayne Township), and Kettering
Kettering, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 57,502 people, 25,657 households, and 15,727 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,077.4 people per square mile . There were 26,936 housing units at an average density of 1,441.6 per square mile...

 (1955, Van Buren Township) are further examples of townships incorporating into cities.

Pennsylvania
Township (Pennsylvania)
A township in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state of the United States of America, is one of four types of municipalities in the state . Townships were established based on convenient geographical boundaries and vary in size from six to forty square miles...

  and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 are different; these states have civil townships that are not based on the PLSS survey system, but on the older Metes and bounds
Metes and bounds
Metes and bounds is a system or method of describing land, real property or real estate. The system has been used in England for many centuries, and is still used there in the definition of general boundaries...

 survey system. A New Jersey township
Township (New Jersey)
A township, in the context of New Jersey local government, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. As a political entity, a township is a full-fledged municipality, on par with any town, city, borough, or village, collecting property taxes and providing...

 differs only in name from other municipalities: its boundaries are fixed, it is an incorporated body, and it is free to adopt another form of government. The Federal Government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 has frequently failed to allow for Federal funding unless they went under a different name, such as this; some New Jersey municipalities, such as the Township of the Borough of Verona
Verona, New Jersey
Verona is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 13,332.In 2008, New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Verona #1 in Essex County and #3 in New Jersey as "Top Places to Live in New Jersey".-History:Verona and several...

 or Township of South Orange Village
South Orange, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,964 people, 5,522 households, and 3,766 families residing in the township. The population density was 5,945.3 people per square mile . There were 5,671 housing units at an average density of 1,987.5 per square mile...

 http://www.southorange.org/, changed their names to qualify for additional Federal aid.

Utah and Nevada have areas called townships, but they are not the same as civil townships. These areas are not separate governments, but have been granted some degree of self rule by a county.

Charter townships

Michigan has created charter township
Charter township
A charter township is a form of local government in the U.S. state of Michigan. Townships in Michigan are organized governments. A charter township is a township that has been granted a charter, which allows it certain rights and responsibilities of home rule that are generally intermediary in...

s as a separate type of government to allow greater flexibility for township governments to serve urbanized populations. In Michigan, as in other states with like systems (though sometimes different names), a township is an administrative division of a county, which is an administrative division of the state. Counties and townships are local organs through which state law and public policy are administered, adapted to local need to the extent the law allows. A charter township is a township that has been granted a charter, which allows it certain rights and responsibilities of home rule that are generally intermediary in scope between those of a city (a semi-autonomous jurisdiction in Michigan) and a village, which (unless it is a home-rule village) is subject to the authority of the township(s) in which it is located.

Charter townships may also reorganize themselves into municipalities, as can be seen in Wayne County, Michigan
Wayne County, Michigan
-History:Wayne County was one of the first counties formed when the Northwest Territory was organized. It was named for the American general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. It originally encompassed the entire area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, as well as small sections that are now part of northern...

 and elsewhere in the Detroit metropolitan area.

Census statistics

Towns and townships are considered minor civil division
Minor civil division
Minor civil division is a term used by the United States Census Bureau to designate the primary governmental and/or administrative divisions of a county, such as a civil township, precinct, or magisterial district...

s of counties by the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

 for statistical purposes. According to the Census Bureau, in 2002, town or township government applied to 16,504 organized governments in the following 20 states:
  • Connecticut
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Kansas
    Kansas
    Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

  • Maine
    Maine
    Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

  • Massachusetts
    Massachusetts
    The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Missouri
  • Nebraska
    Nebraska
    Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

  • New Hampshire
    New Hampshire
    New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

  • New Jersey
    New Jersey
    New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

  • New York
    New York
    New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
    Rhode Island
    The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

  • South Dakota
  • Vermont
    Vermont
    Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

  • Wisconsin


This categorization includes governmental units officially designated as "Towns" in the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 states, New York, and Wisconsin, some plantations in Maine and locations in New Hampshire. In Minnesota, the terms town and township are used interchangeably with regard to township governments. Although towns in the six New England states and New York, and townships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are legally termed municipal corporations, perform municipal-type functions, and frequently serve densely populated urban areas, they have no necessary relation to concentration of population, and are thus counted for census purposes as town or township governments. Even in states beyond New England, townships often serve urbanized areas and provide municipal services typically provided by incorporated municipalities.

The count of 16,504 organized township governments does not include unorganized township areas (where the township may exist in name only, but has no organized government) or where the townships are coextensive with cities and the cities have absorbed the township functions. It also does not include the townships in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, (see Iowa townships) which are not separate governments, but are classified as subordinate agencies of county governments.

Of the 16,504 town or township governments, only 1,179 (7.1 percent) had as many as 10,000 inhabitants in the 2000 census and 52.4 percent of all towns or townships had fewer than 1000 inhabitants. There was a decline in the number of town or township governments from 16,629 in 1997 to 16,504 in 2002. Nearly all of the decline involved townships in the Midwest.

Usage by state

Because township government is defined by each state, the use of this form also varies by state. States using a township form include the following:
  • Township government is used in Indiana, Kansas
    Kansas
    Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

    , Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, New Jersey
    Township (New Jersey)
    A township, in the context of New Jersey local government, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. As a political entity, a township is a full-fledged municipality, on par with any town, city, borough, or village, collecting property taxes and providing...

    , North Dakota
    North Dakota
    North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

    , Ohio, Pennsylvania
    Township (Pennsylvania)
    A township in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state of the United States of America, is one of four types of municipalities in the state . Townships were established based on convenient geographical boundaries and vary in size from six to forty square miles...

    , South Dakota
    South Dakota
    South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

     and Wisconsin (in Wisconsin known as towns).
  • The form is used in parts of Illinois and also in Nebraska, where they are sometimes referred to as precincts. Two cases of this use of terminology are Edwards
    Edwards County, Illinois
    Edwards County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 6,721, which is a decrease of 3.6% from 6,971 in 2000...

     and Wabash
    Wabash County, Illinois
    Wabash County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 11,947, which is a decrease of 7.7% from 12,937 in 2000...

     Counties in Illinois.
  • The New England
    New England
    New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

     states have a similar concept of local government, but combine the municipal and area government forms into a town
    New England town
    The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...

    ; this is the locus of the town meeting
    Town meeting
    A town meeting is a form of direct democratic rule, used primarily in portions of the United States since the 17th century, in which most or all the members of a community come together to legislate policy and budgets for local government....

    . These states are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. New York also has incorporated townships, called towns, although they have fewer powers than New England towns.
  • Some states formerly used township governments, or have some vestige of named townships. These include Arkansas, California
    California
    California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

    , Iowa, Nevada
    Nevada
    Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

    , North Carolina
    North Carolina
    North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

    , Oklahoma, South Carolina
    South Carolina
    South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

    , and Washington.

External links

  • Organization website for the National Association of Towns and Townships
    National Association of Towns and Townships
    The National Association of Towns and Townships is an American lobbying or advocacy group of officials and employees of small government units across the United States...

    .
  • Government Organization, U.S. Census Bureau, 2002 Census of Governments, Volume 1, Number 1, Government Organization, GC02(1)-1, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2002.
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