The United States Census Bureau separates places by incorporation for statistical purposes during its decennial census. To incorporate, communities may need to meet statutory requirements made by their respective state, such as thresholds in population or specificities relative to location.^[a] Federally, the Census Bureau defines incorporated places as areas, whose boundaries do not cross state lines, that "provide governmental functions for a concentration of people", as opposed to "minor civil [divisions], which generally ... provide services or administer an area without regard, necessarily, to population".^[5] Unincorporated communities, classified as census-designated places (CDPs), lack elected municipal officers and boundaries with legal status.^[5] The Bureau identified 169 CDPs in the state of West Virginia at the 2010 census.

The Municipal Code of West Virginia, which governs incorporation, requires applicant municipal corporations (places for incorporation) that cover an area more than 1 square mile (2.6 km²) to have a minimum of 500 inhabitants or freeholders per square mile, and those under 1 square mile to have at least 100 inhabitants or freeholders. Applicant areas must not reside within a municipality "urban in character", nor claim an area "disproportionate to its number of inhabitants".^[6] Upon approval, the state classifies municipal corporations as a Class I city, with a population of more than fifty thousand, a Class II city, with a population between ten thousand and fifty thousand, a Class III city, with a population between two thousand and ten thousand, or a Class IV town or village, with a population of less than two thousand.^[7] All municipalities can "use a common seal", defend, maintain, or institute a proceeding in court, and hold, take, purchase, or lease, as lessee, property for municipal purposes.^[8]

Of the fifty-five counties in West Virginia, Logan is home to the most CDPs, with twenty-two, followed by Fayette, with eighteen, and Raleigh, with fifteen. The largest CDP by population is Teays Valley, with 13,175 residents, while Bowden, with 9 residents over 0.12 square miles (0.31 km²), represents the state's smallest CDP by both population and area.^[9]

Census-designated places

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  The Birch River, located in the town of the same name, is a tributary of the Elk River.^[12]
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  The houses of Boomer, as seen from across the Kanawha River in May 1975
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  A child returning to school with an ice cream cone in Chattaroy. Photographed as a part of the DOCUMERICA series, which aimed to "photographically document subjects of environmental concern", the image's title states that Chattaroy "[had] no industry" and that "most of the people [survived] on welfare, pensions, Social Security, and black lung benefits" in April 1974.^[13][14]
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  The Coal City Club in Coal City, pictured in June 1974; some miners outside were "hunkering down", a "familiar stance to all miners who use this posture in the mine shafts which have low ceilings".^[15]
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  The Bank of Glen Jean in the town of the same name was constructed in 1909.^[16]
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  Otterbein United Methodist Church in Green Spring
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  The Daniel Fry House in Middleway
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  A DOCUMERICA image of Rand, with "much of its population living in poverty" in June 1973^[17]
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  The Red Jacket Consolidated Coal and Coke Company constructed Red Jacket (pictured) in 1905.^[18]
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  A post office in Shenandoah Junction
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  The Peerless Coal Company Store in Vivian was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.^[19]