In Geography
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has a Geographic Names Information System that defines three classes of human settlement: "Populated Place", "Census" and "Civil". The populated place is defined as a place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population (city, settlement, town, village or hamlet) referenced with geographic coordinates, which is "usually not incorporated and by definition has no legal boundaries". The Populated Places may partially correspond to Civil records: "A political division formed for administrative purposes (borough, county, incorporated place, municipio, parish, town, township)."
Read more about this topic: Populated Places
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