Degree of settlement of the community is that of migratory or nomadic bands occupying temporary camps for brief periods successively throughout the year
That of seminomadic communities temporary camps for much of the year but aggregated in a fixed settlement at some season or seasons, e.g., recurrently occupied winter quarters
Semisedentary settlements occupied throughout the year by at least a nucleus of the community's population, but from which a substantial proportion of the population departs seasonally to occupy shifting camps, e.g., on extended hunting or fishing trips or during pastoral transhumanance
Impermanent settlements occupied throughout the year, but moved from time to time for nonecological reasons, e.g., because of untoward events like an epidemic or the death of a headman
Permanent settlements occupied throughout the year and for long or indefinite periods (In default of definite evidence of impermanence, raters were instructed to use7 rather than 5 or 6)

Settlements are compact, e.g., nucleated villages or concentrated camps
Settlements are dispersed, e.g., neighborhoods of isolated homesteads or bands whose members live in dispersed family camps
Settlements are composed of spatially separate hamlets or subsettlements
Settlements are partially dispersed, e.g., a central village or town core with outlying satellite hamlets or family homesteads
Settlements are straggling, e.g. dwellings or homesteads strung out along a river bank, the seashore, or the like, in a rather continuous distribution. Such settlements merge into one another, but are considered distinct settlements by the occupants, nevertheless.

The largest settlement is primarily a ceremonial or religious center for the focal area (which is perhaps a larger and more densely populated region)
Within the culture being examined (focal area), the society is mostly rural; the largest communities have none of the characteristics of administrative, ceremonial, or mercantile centers

Less than one person per five square miles
From one person per square mile to one per five square miles
From one to five persons per square mile