Unincorporated community

An unincorporated community is one general term for a geographic area having a common social identity without benefit of municipal organization or official political designation (i.e. incorporation as a city or town).

There are two main types of unincorporated communities:

• a neighborhood or other community existing within one or across multiple existing incorporated areas (i.e. cities or towns). One example is Clifton, Massachusetts.
• a neighborhood or other community existing outside of an incorporated municipal government, or away from a larger urbanized area. For example, Paradise, Michigan.

In New York State, unincorporated communities within towns are called hamlets.