What City Am I In?
Tap Use my location or type a U.S. street address or coordinates to see whether you are inside an incorporated city or town, a Census Designated Place (CDP), or an unincorporated county area.
How to Find What City or Town You Are In Right Now
This city lookup identifies whether your current GPS location or U.S. street address lies inside a legally incorporated municipality, a Census Designated Place (CDP), or an unincorporated county area by querying the U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder’s Incorporated Places, Census Designated Places, and County Subdivisions layers. Unlike a postal mailing address—which simply prints the name of the post office that delivers mail to your route—this tool tests your exact coordinates against legal municipal boundary lines.
Incorporated Cities vs. Census Designated Places vs. Unincorporated Land
Across the United States, millions of homes and businesses carry a city name on their envelopes while sitting outside that city’s legal municipal limits. Understanding which category your location falls into matters for local property taxes, municipal voting, building permits, police and fire jurisdiction, and city trash or utility services:
- Incorporated Place (City, Town, Village, or Borough): A legally chartered municipal corporation with its own elected local government and defined corporate boundaries (TIGERweb Layer 28).
- Census Designated Place (CDP): A named, settled community—such as Paradise, Nevada, Silver Spring, Maryland, or Metairie, Louisiana—that looks like a city or town on maps and road signs but has no separate municipal government of its own, remaining governed by the surrounding county or township (TIGERweb Layer 30).
- Unincorporated County Area and County Subdivision: Land outside any incorporated municipality. In New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, county subdivisions often correspond to active civil towns or charter townships; in many southern and western states, they represent Census County Divisions (CCDs) or magisterial districts.
Data Sources and Boundary Precision
All place and municipal results come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s current TIGER/Line benchmark via the official Census Geocoder, covering 19,729 incorporated places and 12,913 Census Designated Places across all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. If your GPS reading is near a city limit or annexation line, enter your full street address to verify the exact parcel location, or check What County Am I In? and What ZIP Code Am I In?.