Ningchuan Xiao

Abstract Geographic regions are often vague or uncertain because they do not have clearly defined boundaries. The region referred to as Central Ohio, for example, is commonly recognized and referred to by people in the area around Columbus, Ohio. For places that are near Columbus, however, people are often indeterminate about whether they are in or out of the region.

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1 Introduction Complete-count census data enumerates every individual and household of the United States and includes information on their demographic, social, and housing characteristics. Such data has been widely used in a variety of social, economic, health, and demographic applications (Donnelly 2019; Walker 2023).