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This layer has point locations, elevations, and estimated populations for 629 Montana towns. Where a town corresponds to an incorporated place or a Census Designated Place, the 2010 population value is the official Census population of the place. The 2010 population of other towns are based on the populations of the 2010 Census Blocks that an area around the town covers. Every town also has estimated 1990 and 2000 populations of the area currently defined as representing the town. For incorporated and Census Designated Places, these estimates will generally not equal the 1990 or 2000 Census populations of those places because their boundaries may have changed since the earlier Censuses.The towns selected for inclusion in this layer are the ones that were shown on 1:250,000 scale U.S. Geological Survey maps in the 1970s and on the Montana Highway Map published by the state in the 1990s. Some Census Designated Places that seem to represent suburban regions or rural subdivisions are not included in this layer. In some cases, there is disagreement between the names and/or extents of these towns and the Census Designated Places that cover all or part of the same area. These discrepancies are noted in the Alt_Name field of the layer. |