An
independent city is a
city
that does not form part of another general-purpose
local government entity.
Independent cities should not be confused
with city-states (such as Singapore
), which are fully sovereign cities that are not
part of any other nation-state.
Asia
People's Republic of China
In
mainland China under the administration of People's
Republic of China
, the Cities of Beijing,
Tianjin
, Shanghai and Chongqing
are centrally-administered province-level
regions, and they do not belong to any particular province. Additionally, there are
several vice provincial cities that are nominally under provinces
but are in reality independent of any provinces.
Within some provinces, there are some cities that are directly
under provinces, bypassing an administrative level (prefectures and
prefecture-level cities).
Hong Kong
and Macau
are two
Special
Administrative Regions (SAR) of China which have high degree
autonomy except acts of state like diplomatic relations and
national defence.
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Under the
administrative
division system of the Republic of China
, some cities are directly administered by the Executive Yuan
, some are administered
by provinces (the province of Taiwan is nominal), and some are
subordinate to
counties. The centrally-administered and
province-administered ones are like independent cities under this
definition.
Korea (Republic of Korea)
In
addition to its nine provinces, South Korea
has seven province-level "metropolitan
cities." By far the largest among these in terms of
population is the capital, Seoul
, called a
teukbyeol-si (특별시; literally, special city), which is home
to more than 20% of the entire population of the country.
The
remaining six independent cities are called gwangyeok-si
(광역시; literally, large city) whose names are: Busan
, Daegu
, Daejeon
, Incheon
, Gwangju
, and
Ulsan
.
Historically, these independent cities have been carved from the
province that surrounds them. Consequently, they typically share a
strong regional and cultural identity with the adjoining
province(s). For instance, Gwangju, located at the center of
Jeolla region, is heavily associated with the
region.
Seoul and Incheon are said to make up the
National Capital Area
along with the densely populated Gyeonggi
that almost completely encompasses
them.
One interesting relic of the newer independent cities is that, in
some cases, the government administrative buildings
(
docheong) of the provinces they were once a part of are
still located within city boundaries, meaning that these provinces
have capitols that are not within their borders.
In 2006, the ruling party floated a proposal to completely
eliminate all current province and independent-city borders. This
plan would divide the entire republic into fifty or sixty city- or
county-level administrations, similar to the system in Japan. The
plan was intended to help reduce regional discrimination and
animosity by eliminating provincial identity.
Philippines
- Main article: Cities of the
Philippines#Independent cities
Many major cities in the Philippines are independent cities,
classified as either "highly urbanized" or "independent component"
cities. These cities do not share their tax revenues with any
province, and are administratively and legally not part of any
province, although many still group them as components of the
provinces to which they previously belonged for convenience and
reduced complexity.
There are 38 of them, with 16 being located
in Metro
Manila
, 8 in the rest of the Luzon
island
group, 7 in the Visayas
and 7 in
Mindanao
.
Europe
Austria
In
Austria
, a similar concept is the Statutarstadt.
France
- See also: Administrative divisions of
France.
The city
of Paris
is both a
département and a
commune; it is the only
French city with this status. The Council of Paris
(
Conseil de Paris) exercises functions similar to those of
a departmental council (
conseil général) and a city
council (
conseil municipal).
However, Paris and
the départments closest to it are part of the Ile-de-France
région.
Germany
- See also: List of
German urban districts.
In
Germany
, different states
have either the Stadtkreis ("Urban County") or
Kreisfreie Stadt (literally, "County-Free
City").
Examples of German independent cities are:
Additionally, the German City-states of Berlin
, Bremen
and
Hamburg
function as federal states. The City-state of Bremen
is
comprised solely of the cities of Bremen
and
Bremerhaven
(which was originally founded as an ocean port for
the city of Bremen).
Hungary
- See also: List of towns
in Hungary
In
Hungary
23 of the cities are "cities with county rights",
these cities have equal rights with the 19 counties of
Hungary.
Norway
In
Norway
, Oslo is
both a municipality (kommune) and a county (fylke) within
itself.
Poland
- See also: Powiat.
In
Poland
, many of
the biggest cities comprise their own city counties
(formally "cities with county rights"). They are suitably
marked on the
list of
counties in Poland.
Russian Federation
In the
Russian
Federation
, Moscow
and
Saint
Petersburg
are both subjects of the federation and cities
themselves.
Spain
- See also: Plazas de
soberanía.
In
Spain
, there exist two so-called autonomous
cities, Ceuta
and
Melilla
, which are located on the North African coast
surrounded by Morocco and have been under Spanish jurisdiction
since the 1400s. Spain is a highly decentralized state
organized in
autonomous
communities. These two cities hold their special status because
they are not large enough to be considered regions on their own.
Nonetheless, they function as autonomous communities with a high
degree of self-administration and law-making powers.
United Kingdom
Some
cities in the United
Kingdom
are a unitary
authority, and could be considered to be independent
cities. In the UK, however, "city" has no inherent status;
city status
depends on a grant from the
monarch
and merely confers on the place so-designated the right to call
itself a city. The standard for such a right was once thought to
depend on whether the entity has a cathedral. As is now made clear
by the Department for Constitutional Affairs , there are no formal
criteria such as this for the city to apply for, and be granted
city status in the UK. There are 66 cities in the UK - 50 in
England, five in Wales, six in Scotland and five in Northern
Ireland.
County borough referred to a borough or a city independent of county council control in England
and Wales
from 1889
to 1974 with the term continuing in use in Northern
Ireland
. Wales re-introduced the term in 1994 for
use with certain unitary authorities.
National capitals
A number of countries have made their national capitals into
separate entities.
For example Copenhagen
, the capital of Denmark
, is outside of the country's system of counties, as
is the capital of Romania, Bucharest
. Washington, D.C.
, the capital of the United States, is not within
any of the 50 states. London
is
actually composed of the City of London
and county of
Greater
London
, which is divided into a number of boroughs.
The
German capital,
Berlin, is a
Federal State with the same level of autonomy as much larger
states, such as Bavaria
. Brussels
, the capital of Belgium
, is a separate region (the Brussels-Capital Region
), independent of both Flanders and Wallonia
, despite being entirely surrounded by Flanders (of
which it is also the regional capital) and sharing a common
language with Wallonia (French).
Federal capitals
In countries with a
federal structure,
the federal capital is often separate from other jurisdictions in
the country, and frequently has a unique system of
government.
Examples include:
- The
Australian capital, Canberra
, is situated in the Australian
Capital Territory
(A.C.T.). Canberra is not however an
independent city. Its local government is that of the A.C.T., and
Canberra has no city council of any form. Also, the A.C.T. (and
Canberra) have their proportional representation in the Federal
Senate and Parliament. The A.C.T. is contained entirely within the
State of New South
Wales
.
- Washington, the capital city of the United States
, is located in the District of Columbia
, though for a long time, Washington and the
District of Columbia have been co-terminous - that is, they have
the same boundaries, and they are fused into one entity.
The
District of Columbia is a capital territory created out of parts of
Maryland
and Virginia
, although in 1846, the portion from Virginia was
removed from the Federal District and returned to
Virginia.
- Bogotá
, Colombia
, is formally Bogotá, Distrito Capital
(The Capital District).
- Abuja
, the
capital city Nigeria is a separate entity but not counted as one of
the states of the country but a federal capital
territory
- India
has a
National Capital
Territory of Delhi, which includes New Delhi
, the capital city, and the old city of Delhi
.
- Buenos Aires
, Brasília
, Caracas
, and Mexico
City
, the capitals of Argentina
, Brazil
, Venezuela
, and Mexico
respectively, are each located in a Federal District. The district for
Brasilia, similar to the ones for Canberra and for Washington, was
created specially for the purpose of housing the Federal capital
city.
- Moscow, the
capital of Russia
, itself
forms a Federal City, a capital
territory, which is one of the 83 Federal subjects of
Russia.
North America
Canada
In the
Canadian
province of Ontario
, the same type of city is referred to as a single-tier
municipality (there are also separated
municipalities). In Quebec
they are
often called separated cities, as they are not Regional County
Municipalities. Cities and towns in Alberta
are not part of rural municipalities such as
counties. In New Brunswick
, all county government was abolished in 1967 ,
therefore, in theory, all cities, townships, and settlements in New
Brunswick could be considered independent cities.
United States
In the
United
States, an independent city is a city
that does not belong to any particular county. Because counties have
historically been a strong institution in local government in most
of the United States, independent cities are relatively rare
outside of Virginia (see below), whose state constitution makes
them a special case. The
U.S. Census
Bureau uses counties as its base unit for presentation of
statistical information, and treats independent cities as county
equivalents for those purposes.
Independent cities should not be confused
with consolidated
city-counties, such as Jacksonville, Florida
; Indianapolis, Indiana
; Louisville-Jefferson County
, Kentucky
; Nashville-Davidson
, Tennessee
; Denver,
Colorado
; the City and County of San Francisco,
California
; or,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.
Virginia
Thirty-nine of the U.S.A.'s 42 independent cities are in Virginia.
The three
that are not in Virginia are Baltimore, Maryland
; St. Louis, Missouri
; and Carson City, Nevada
.
In the
Commonwealth of Virginia
, all municipalities incorporated as "cities" have
also been "independent cities," also called "free cities," since
1871, when a revised state constitution took effect following the
American Civil War and the loss
of the area which became the separate state of West
Virginia
.
Virginia's independent cities are not politically part of a county,
even though geographically they may be completely surrounded by
one. An independent city in Virginia may serve as the
county seat of an adjacent county, even though
the city by definition is not part of that county. Some other
Virginia municipalities, even though they may be more populous than
some existing independent cities, are
incorporated towns. These towns always
form part of a county. Incorporated towns have limited powers,
varying by each charter. They typically share many aspects such as
courts and public
school divisions
with the county they are within.
Three older Virginia counties, whose origins go back to the
original eight
shires of Virginia
formed in 1634 in the
Colony of
Virginia, have the word
city in their names; however,
politically they are counties.
These include Charles
City County
and James City County
, whose names originated with earlier
"incorporations" created in 1619 by the Virginia Company as Charles Cittie [sic] and
James Cittie
[sic]. Another was Elizabeth City County,
originally part of the older Elizabeth Cittie, which
became extinct in 1952 when it was consolidated politically by
mutual consent with the small City of Hampton, the county seat, and
the Town of
Phoebus
to reform and expand into the current independent
city of Hampton,
Virginia
, one of the large Seven
Cities of Hampton Roads
.
Arlington County
Arlington
County
, commonly referred to as just "Arlington," is not
an independent city. However, it is often referenced,
popularly, as a city because it is geographically small and dense;
is fully urbanized; is close in size to other independent cities in
the state; has no other city or town within its borders; and
through a
quirk of Virginia history,
maintains its own highway infrastructure like independent cities
(but unlike nearly any other Virginia county).
It consists solely of
land ceded by Virginia to the Federal Government to form Washington,
D.C. in the late 18th century, and retroceded to Virginia
in 1846 (most of this land now composes Arlington County, the rest
of it forms part of the City of Alexandria).
Former cities
See also: Lost counties,
cities, and towns of Virginia.
Former independent cities now extinct that were long extant in
Virginia include:
Two other independent cities existed only for a short time:
Other states
Some states have created independent cities in order to cater for
the special requirements of governing their largest cities and/or
capitals:
Other entities similar to independent cities
An independent city is not the same as:
- A
consolidated city-county
(such as San
Francisco, Philadelphia
, Denver
, Honolulu
, Jacksonville (Florida), Indianapolis
, Nashville
(Tennessee), Lexington 
, Athens 
, New
Orleans
, or Anchorage 
), in which the city and county (or, as in
Louisiana, a parish; or as in Alaska, a borough) governments have
been merged (in some cases, the city takes up all the land within
the county's boundaries, while in other cases, several other
independent incorporated communities exist). The town and the
county of Nantucket
in Massachusetts, which are coterminous, form a
similar entity. Likewise for the City and
County of Honolulu
, which covers the entire island of Oahu
, Hawaii
.
- Washington, D.C., which, like the capitals of many other countries
(see below), has a special status. It is not part of any
state; instead, it comprises the entirety
of the District of
Columbia, which, in accordance with Article 1, Section 8 of
the U.S. Constitution, is under the jurisdiction of
the U.S. Congress. When founded, the
District was in fact divided into two counties and two independent
cities. Alexandria County
(which now forms Arlington
County and a portion of the independent city of Alexandria
) was given back to Virginia in 1846, while the
three remaining entities (the City of Washington, Georgetown
City
and Washington County) were merged into
a consolidated government by an act of Congress in 1871 and
Georgetown was formally abolished as a city entity by another act
in 1895. Congress has established a home rule government for the
city, although city laws can be overridden by Congress. This action
is fairly rare, and so in practice the city operates much like
other independent cities in the United States, although
technically, it does not meet the legal definition of one.
- Cities and towns in New England
traditionally have very strong governments
while counties have correspondingly less importance.
Today,
most counties in southern New England (Connecticut
, Rhode
Island
, and Massachusetts
) have almost no governmental institutions or
roles associated with them (aside from serving as a basis for court
districts). Somewhat like the ceremonial counties of
England, counties in southern New England still have a nominal
existence, and so no city or town in those three states is truly
separate from a county, although the town and the county of
Nantucket, Massachusetts (on the island of that name), as noted
above, are coterminious, and the City of Boston, Massachusetts used
to provide both the complete governance and the complete revenue of
its county, Suffolk County, although Suffolk County also incudes
two much smaller cities and one town.
See also
References
- http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/city/citygj.htm#part2
- http://www.virginiaplaces.org/vacities/index.html
(Frankfurt am Main)
(München)
(Nürnberg)
, which gave up its city
charter in 2001, and is now an incorporated town in Alleghany
County
.
, which was consolidated by mutual agreement with
the City of
Richmond
in 1910.
, which gave up its city charter in 1994, and is now
an incorporated town in Halifax
County
.
.
, created from the former Nansemond County in 1972, was
merged in 1974 with the then-City of Suffolk and three unincorporated town within the
county's former boundaries to form today's City of
Suffolk
.
.
, consolidated with Ormsby County in 1969; however, Ormsby
County was simultaneously dissolved.
, was separated from St. Louis
County
in 1876.
and
Miami-Dade
County, Florida
.
, which is
a sui generis jurisdiction: the
city is made up of five boroughs, each of
which is territorially conterminous with a county of New York
State.
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