Rural Nevada has relatively few incorporated cities and towns, many communities are unincorporated and spread across large distances. To make sure those places are still represented in official geography, the U.S. Census Bureau uses Census-Designated Places (CDPs), these are statistical “place” boundaries created for describing where people live and where communities function.

For PIT Count activities, we use cities/towns and CDPs as practical planning units. They help county and local teams coordinate recruitment, define coverage areas, share meeting locations, map common service points, and organize volunteer routes on Count Night. A CDP is not a city government, it’s a Census geography that helps us name and plan around the places where people congregate.