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In North American law, a region of land is unincorporated if it is not a part of any municipality. To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, i.e., a city or town with its own government. Thus, an unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a city government. However, such regions are generally administered by default as a part of larger territorial divisions such as: Township, county, state, province, canton, parish, or country. It is uncommon, but not unknown, for small towns in fiscal crisis to disincorporate in order to have services provided by a higher administration.
Canada
In Canada, depending on the province, an unincorporated settlement is one that has no town council and is part of a larger municipal government. This can range from small hamlets to larger urbanised areas. For example the Edmonton, Alberta suburb of Sherwood Park would be one of the largest cities in Alberta if it were incorporated but remains simply a part of the Specialised Municipality of Strathcona County. Likewise the oil sands boomtown of Fort McMurray, Alberta is not a separate community but part of the massive Wood Buffalo Regional Municipality.
Also, the town of Embrun, Ontario has a population of 11,500, but is part of the Russell Township.
United States
In the United States, unincorporated regions tend to be fairly rare in the densely-populated northeastern and midwestern states, but are very common in the western and southwestern states, like California and Nevada, and in the southeastern states, like Florida, Maryland, and Virginia. Unlike most other states, Maryland in particular grants significant home-rule powers to its counties, hence population centers comprising tens of thousands — including virtually all of suburban Baltimore — have little incentive to incorporate. The state of Hawaii takes the concept to its logical conclusion: it has no incorporated cities as subcounty governments (the City and County of Honolulu is the state's only "city") and all its "towns" are administered at the county level. In United States local government, an unincorporated community is one general term for a geographic area having a common social identity without benefit of municipal organization or official political designation (i.e. incorporation as a city or town). There are two main types of unincorporated communities:
- a neighborhood or other community existing within one or across multiple existing incorporated areas (i.e. cities or towns). For example, Clifton, Massachusetts lies on the border between the towns of Swampscott and Marblehead. Nike headquarters is completely surrounded by the city of Beaverton, Oregon.
- a neighborhood or other community existing outside of an incorporated municipal government, or away from a larger urbanized area. For example, Paradise, Michigan.
In New York State, unincorporated communities within towns are called hamlets. The towns are themselves municipalities which can contain villages. In Ohio, townships are considered unincorporated areas while only villages and cities are referred to as incorporated.
In the context of the United States insular areas, the word "unincorporated" means that the territory has not been formally and irrevocably incorporated into the United States. (See: incorporated territory.) Unincorporated insular areas are therefore potentially subject to being sold or otherwise transferred to another power, or, conversely, being granted independence. However, neither fate seems likely to occur in the foreseeable future to the five remaining major unincorporated U.S. insular areas, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands.
Countries without unincorporated places
Many countries, especially those with many centuries of history using multiple tiers of municipal government, do not use the concept of an unincorporated place.
In the United Kingdom the whole of the country, rural and urban, has been covered by a two or three-tier system of local government for many centuries.
Likewise the whole of the territory of the French Republic, except for some small overseas possessions, is divided into communes. Within the territory of the French Republic, there is no such thing as unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority.
See also
Local government in the United States | Urban studies and planning
"Unincorporated"