What city am I in?

City limits, CDPs and unincorporated areas

In the US, “city” can mean three different things. An incorporated place (a city, town, village or borough, depending on the state) has its own local government and legal limits. A census designated place, or CDP, is a named community with no government of its own, like Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Everything else is an unincorporated area, run directly by the county.

We check your spot against the Census Bureau’s official boundaries and draw them on the map, so you can see exactly where city limits end. Your mailing address may still say a nearby city’s name: the Postal Service doesn’t follow city limits.

Worked examples: famous places and the city they’re really in

We ran a few well-known spots through the tool. Several of them aren’t in the city their mailing address suggests.

Looked up with this tool on October 31, 2026, using the Census Bureau’s TIGERweb boundaries. Tap any of these spots on the map to check for yourself.

Notice the Strip: hotel addresses there say “Las Vegas,” but the Census puts that spot in Paradise, an unincorporated town run by Clark County. Universal Studios Hollywood isn’t inside any city at all, and Denver shows up as both the city and the county, because the two are one consolidated government.

How we work it out

It takes three steps:

• Your browser gives us your position. On a phone it comes from GPS and is usually accurate to a few yards; on a laptop it comes from Wi-Fi and can be off by a few hundred. We show that accuracy under the result.
• One query to the Census Bureau’s TIGERweb service returns the state, the county, the incorporated place or CDP you’re in, and the ZIP Code Tabulation Area. We then fetch the city outline and draw it on the map.
• We look up the nearest street address in OpenStreetMap, so you also know which street you’re on.

Edge cases worth knowing

Some cities aren’t part of any county. St. Louis, Baltimore and most of Virginia’s cities are independent, and the Census treats them as their own county equivalent. Others merged with their county, like Denver or San Francisco, so you’ll see the same name twice.

Washington, D.C. isn’t in a state, Louisiana has parishes instead of counties, and Alaska has boroughs and census areas. Near a city line, remember that GPS has a margin: if you’re within a few dozen yards of the outline on the map, you could be on either side.

Why your city matters

• Who answers a 911 call or a noise complaint: city police inside city limits, the county sheriff outside them.
• Local sales tax, property tax and fees, which often change right at the city line.
• Which city council and mayor you vote for, and which ballot measures you get.
• Trash pickup, water service, building permits, business licenses and short-term rental rules.
• What’s allowed on the Fourth of July: fireworks rules are often set city by city.

Outside the US

It works anywhere. In Spain you get the town and the municipality from the official IGN boundaries and the CartoCiudad street map. Everywhere else, the town comes from the nearest OpenStreetMap address; if there’s none within about 1,000 feet, we give you the region instead.