494 MARYLAND MANUAL
made to avoid some of the more obvious omissions by the inclusion of the
places urban under special rules. Even with these rules, however, many
large and closely built-up places were excluded from the urban territory.
To improve the situation in the 1950 Census, the Bureau of the Census set
up, in advance of enumeration, boundaries for urban-fringe areas around
cities of 50,000 or more and for unincorporated places outside urban fringes.
All the population residing in urban-fringe areas and in unincorporated
places of 2,500 or more is classified as urban according to the new definition.
(Of course, the incorporated places of 2,500 or more are urban in their own
right.) Consequently, the special rules of the old definition are no longer
necessary.
According to the new urban definition, the 1950 urban population of
Maryland consisted of the following components: (1) The 1,215,258 in-
habitants of the 31 incorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more;
(2) the 7,958 inhabitants of the 2 specially delineated unincorporated places
of 2,500 inhabitants or more; and (3) the 392,686 persons living in other
territory in the urban fringe of Baltimore and the Maryland part of the
urban fringe of Washington, D. C.
Under the old definition, there were two places urban under special rule
in Maryland. These places, district 12 and district 13 in Baltimore County,
had a total population of 69,360. The urban population under the old defini-
tion, therefore, consisted of the population of the 31 incorporated places
of 2,500 inhabitants or more and the 59,360 inhabitants of district 12 and
district 13, a total of 1,274,618.
Under the new definition, 56,469 inhabitants of the two places urban
under special rule were included in the urban population because they were
living in the urban fringe of Baltimore. The remaining 2,891 inhabitants
of these places were classified as rural. The net gain in the urban popula-
tion of the State resulting from the change in definition, therefore, was
341,284.
(1) Except in New England, New York, and Wisconsin, where "towns" are minor civil di-
visions of counties and are not necessarily densely settled centers like the towns in other States.
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