Everything about Unorganized Territory totally explained
An
unorganized territory is a region of land, generally with less self-governmental powers than other regions, controlled by a specific government. The term has several denotations depending on the exact usage and context.
United States
U.S. Census Bureau
Unorganized territories, as defined by the
U.S. Census Bureau, occur in 10
minor civil division (MCD) states (
Arkansas,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Louisiana,
Maine,
Minnesota,
North Carolina,
North Dakota,
Ohio, and
South Dakota) where portions of
counties are not included in any legally established MCD or independent incorporated place. The U.S. Census Bureau recognizes such separate pieces of territory as one or more separate county subdivisions for statistical purposes. It assigns each unorganized territory a descriptive name, followed by the designation "unorganized territory." Unorganized territories were first used for statistical purposes in conjunction with the 1960 census.
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At the
2000 census there were 305 of these territories within the United States. Their total land area was 221,164.87 km² (85,392.23 sq mi), or larger than the entire state of
Idaho. There was a total population of 247,331 on these lands. South Dakota has the most unorganized territories, 102, as well as the largest amount of land under that status, 103,042.114 km² (39,784.78 sq mi), or 52.428 percent of the state's land area. North Dakota follows with 86 territories, 52,727.67 km² (20,358.27 sq mi), or 29.515 percent of its land area. Maine is next with 36 territories, 36,395.73 km² (14.052.47 sq mi), or 45.534 percent of its land area. Minnesota has 71 territories, 27,329.68 km² (10,552.05 sq mi), or 13.255 percent of its land area. The other states have very insignificant amounts of unorganized territory. However, the unorganized territory with the largest population is
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a
United States Marine Corps base with a census population of 34,452 inhabitants.
United States territory
An unorganized territory is also a
United States territory for which the
United States Congress hasn't enacted an
organic act. In this sense, unorganized territories are lands possessed by the federal U.S. government but which are not within any of the
states of the Union and have not been "organized" into self-governing units. Currently, all federal unorganized territory is considered to be an
Insular area, administered by the
Office of Insular Affairs,
U.S. Department of the Interior.
American Samoa is technically unorganized, in that Congress hasn't passed an organic act, but is self-governing under terms of a constitution last revised in 1967. As of 2006,
Palmyra Atoll is the only unorganized incorporated U.S. territory.
Historically,
Unorganized Territory was a name used by the United States government to refer to the enormous territory in the
Great Plains before it was organized into smaller territories. The area was a part of the
Louisiana Territory until 1812 and the
Missouri Territory until 1820. In 1820 the
Missouri Compromise carved the
State of Missouri out of the territory, and the rest of the area became unorganized. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 divided the area into the Kansas and Nebraska Territories.
In modern parlance, such territory would be considered
incorporated territory (for example, part of the United States proper), yet not
organized territory. However, the distinction between incorporated and non-incorporated territory didn't arise until the territorial acquisitions following the
Spanish-American War in 1898.
Canada
Unorganized territories also exist in certain regions of
Canada, such as
Northern Ontario where there's no region-wide level of
government. In
Quebec, territory not within the border of a municipality of some sort is unorganized territory.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Unorganized Territory'.
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