Editing Town (section)

====New England====
{{Main|New England town}}
[[File:Downtown Ipswich MA.jpg|thumb|A downtown of [[Ipswich, Massachusetts]]]]
In the six [[New England]] states, a [[New England town|town]] is the most prevalent minor civil division, and in most cases, are a more important form of government than the county. In [[Connecticut]], [[Rhode Island]] and seven out of fourteen counties in [[Massachusetts]], in fact, counties only exist as boundaries for state services and chambers of commerce at most, and have no independent legal functions. In [[New Hampshire]], [[Maine]], and [[Vermont]], counties function at a limited scope, and are still not as important in northern New England as they are outside of the northeast. In all six states, towns perform functions that in most states would be county functions. The defining feature of a New England town, as opposed to a city, is that a [[town meeting]] and a [[board of selectmen]] serve as the main form of government for a town, while cities are run by a mayor and a city council.  For example, [[Brookline, Massachusetts]] is a town, even though it is fairly urban, because of its form of government.  In the three southern New England states, the entire land area is divided into towns and cities, while the three northern states have small areas that are unincorporated. In Vermont and New Hampshire, the population of these areas is practically nonexistent, while in Maine, unincorporated areas make up roughly half of the state's area but only one percent of the state's population.

Though the U.S. Census Bureau defines New England towns as "minor civil divisions" for statistical purposes, all New England towns are [[municipal corporations]] equivalent to cities in all legal respects, except for form of government.  For statistical purposes, the Census Bureau uses [[census-designated place]]s for the built-up population centers within towns, though these have no legal or social recognition for residents of those towns.  Similarly, the Census Bureau uses a special designation for [[urban areas]] within New England, the [[New England city and town area]], instead of the [[metropolitan statistical area]] it uses in the rest of the country.