The labpt slot of the SpatialPolygon object in the sp package is vaguely defined in the documentation as a point where a label is displayed for the polygon. I would like to know the calculation behind it and what are it's properties. Typically are we sure that it will be in the polygon or like a centroid it can be out of the polygon?
I found a function in the rgeos package computing a similarly named object but cannot figure out if it actually is the function used by sp.
It is the centroid of the polygon with minor adaptations as well described in this answer to a question about coordinates() which actually extract labpt from SpatialPolygon objects.