A
municipality is an
administrative entity composed of a clearly
defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a
city,
town, or
village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality
is typically governed by a
mayor and a
city council or
municipal council.
The notion of municipality includes
townships but is not restricted to them. A
municipality is a general-purpose district, as opposed to a
special-purpose
district.
In most
countries, a municipality is the
smallest administrative subdivision to have its own
democratically elected
representative leadership. In some
countries, municipalities are referred to as "communes" (for
example, French
commune, Italian
comune, Romanian
comună, Swedish
kommun and Norwegian/Danish
kommune). The term derives from the
medieval commune. In some countries,
especially in the
Middle East, the term
"municipality" is also used to refer to the municipal
administrative building known elsewhere as the
town hall or
city
hall.
The
largest municipalities can be found in Canada
, Greenland
, Australia and Brazil
.
Municipalities as lower-level governance structures
- In
Albania
, a municipality is either part of a city
(bashki) or a
province (komunë).
- In
Algeria
, a municipality (baladiyah) is part of
a daïra, which is part of a wilaya; there are 1,541 municipalities in
Algeria.
- In
Argentina
, a municipality (municipalidad) is a city, town, or township,
which is part of a province. The provinces organize the
municipalities in their territories according to their own municipal regime.
- In Australia, municipalities are
subdivisions of a state or territory. (See
Local Government
Areas in Australia).
- In
Austria
, a municipality (Gemeinde) is part of a
district (Bezirk), which
is in turn part of a state
(Bundesland).
- In
Bangladesh
, a municipality (Paurashava) is part of a
upazila or subdistrict, which
is in turn part of a district.
- In
Belgium
, a municipality (gemeente/commune) is either
part of a province (provincie/province) or
of the Brussels-Capital Region
- In
Bolivia
, a
municipality (municipio) is part of a province, which is part of a departamento.
- In
Bosnia and
Herzegovina
, a municipality (općina or
opština) is
- In
Brazil
, states (estado) are directly divided into
municipalities (municípios),
and the latter are the smallest political-administrative divisions;
there is no equivalent to a county
level. A city (cidade) is
defined in Brazilian law as the urban seat of a municipality, and a
municipality always has the same name as the corresponding city.
Brazilian law establishes no difference between cities and towns;
all it takes for an urban settlement to be called a "city" is to be
the seat of a municipality, and some are very small. Other
settlements have no form of local government and are under the
authority of the municipality they are in, although in some cases
the municipal government may set up local administrative offices
there. The Federal District
(the area of the national capital city, Brasília
) has special status and is not divided into
municipalities, but otherwise all land in Brazil, even the remotest
wilderness areas, is in the territory of some municipality, and
hence technically under the jurisdiction of a "city." No
point in the country is in a non-incorporated area, and this is why
some municipalities in sparsely populated areas such as the
Amazon region can be larger than many
sovereign countries.
- In
Bulgaria
, a municipality (Bulgarian: община) is the smallest
regional administrative division and is part of a province. There are 264 municipalities
grouped in 28 provinces in Bulgaria.
- In
Canada
, a municipality (or local municipality) is a city,
town, village, township or (formerly) borough. A region (or
regional municipality) is a district, county or (formerly)
metropolis which has been incorporated by statute by the legislature of the province or territory.
It is
also a specific designation for certain municipalities in Quebec
, Nova Scotia
and Ontario
. Certain areas of Ontario
, Saskatchewan
and Manitoba
are designated as rural municipalities, while equivalent
areas in Alberta
are designated as municipal districts and some in British
Columbia
are designated as district
municipalities.
- In
Chile
, a municipality (municipalidad) is a legal
entity which administers one or more commune
(comuna) which are the third-level division of the
country. The first division are regions which a next divided into provinces (provincia). These
provinces are next divided into comunas which are assigned
to a municipality for administration. In most cases the
municipality and the comuna have the same name, but the
constitution permits a single municipality to be responsible for
more than one commune.
- In
Colombia
, a municipality (municipio) is part of a
department
(departamento). It is also subdivided into Corregimientos and Veredas.
- In
Croatia
, a municipality (općina) is part of a county (županija)
- In
the Czech
Republic
, a
municipality (obec) is part of a kraj
(kraj)
- In
Denmark
, a municipality (kommune) is part of a
region. Counties
(amter) were abandoned
in Denmark on January 1, 2007.
- In
the Dominican
Republic
a municipality (municipio) is a subdivision of a province (see municipalities of the
Dominican Republic).
- In
Estonia
, a municipality (omavalitsus) is the smallest
division (vald).
- In
Finland
, a municipality (kunta / kommun) co-operates
with municipalities nearby in a sub-region (seutukunta /
region) and region (maakunta / landskap); a region
belongs to a province (lääni /
län) of the state. A municipality can freely call
itself a "city" (kaupunki / stad).
- In
France
, a
municipality (commune) is
part of a department (département) which is part
of a region (région)
- In
Germany
, a municipality (Gemeinde) is part of a
district (Kreis). Larger entities
of the same level are called towns (Stadt). In less
populated regions, municipalities are often put together into
collective municipalities (Verbandsgemeinde)
- In
Greece
, a municipality is
either demos (δήμος, pl. δήμοι) or koinoteta
(κοινότητα, pl. κοινότητες) with lesser population, which are then
part of a prefecture (nomos, νομός) and then a larger region known as a
periphery (περιφέρεια, pl.
περιφέρειες). Municipalities are third-level administrative
divisions and their heads (mayors in demoi, presidents in
koinotetes) are appointed via popular vote held every four
years.
- In
Haiti
, a municipality (commune) is part of an
arrondissement, which is part of a
department (département).
- In
Hungary
, a municipality (települési önkormányzat)
is part of a county (megye). There were 3168
municipalities in 2005.
- In
Iceland
,a municipality is a town concil. It can also
be a village with population from 300 to 18000 people. (see
Municipalities of
Iceland)
- In
India
, a municipality is often referred to as a
town. It is neither a village nor a big city. Usually, a
municipality would have 100,000 or more people, but if it exceeds
one million, it becomes a corporation.
- In
Italy
, a comune is part of
a province (provincia)
which is part of a region (regione). The term
"municipality" is reserved for subdivisions of larger
comuni (in particular, the comune of Rome
).
- In
Japan
, a municipality is the sphere of government within
the prefectures, the sub-division of the state.
- In
Kenya
, a municipality is one of four types of local
authorities. Nearly 50 major towns are given the
municipality status.
- In
Latvia
, a
municipality (sing.:novads, plur.:novadi) is part
of a district (sing.:rajons,
plur.:rajoni). A municipality normally consists of
amalgated parishe (sing.:pagasts,
plur.:pagasti).
- In
Lebanon
, a municipality is part of a district ( ) which is part of a
Governorate (Region or Province,
Arabic: Mouhafazah).
- In
Libya
, the municipality level is that of the Basic People's
Congress. Large cities are subdivided.
- In
Lithuania
, a municipality (savivaldybė) is a part of
a district (apskritis) and is
subdivided into elderates (seniūnija).
- In
Luxembourg
, communes are
the lowest divisions.
- In
Mexico
, a
municipality (municipio)
is a subdivision of a state (estado) and a borough (delegación) is a subdivision of the
Federal
District
(see municipalities of Mexico and
boroughs of the
Mexican Federal District).
- In
the Netherlands
, a municipality (gemeente) is part of
a province (provincie).
- Every
part of mainland New
Zealand
is part of either a "city" (mostly urban) or a
"district" (mostly rural). The term "municipality" has
become rare in New Zealand since about 1979 and has no legal
status.
- In
Nicaragua
, a municipality (municipio) is subdivision
of a department (departamento) or of one of the two
Autonomous Regions, Región
Autónoma del Atlántico Norte and Región Autónoma
del Atlántico Sur.
- In
Norway
, a
municipality (kommune) is part of a county
(fylke). There
are 430 municipalities in Norway (2009).
- In the Palestinian
National Authority, municipalities are
localities with populations over 4,000 and have 13-15 council
members. There are 105 municipalities in the PNA.
- In
Paraguay
, a municipality (municipalidad) is part of
a departament
(departamento).
- In
Peru
, a municipality (municipio) is another
term for district
(distrito) and is the lower-level administrative
subdivision. It is part of a province (provincia), which is
part of a department
(departamento). As of 2002 a department is now called a
region (región).
- In
the Philippines
, a municipality (bayan or munisipyo)
is a town with a popularly elected administration including a
mayor, and is part of a province (lalawigan)—except for the
independent municipality of Pateros, Metro Manila in the National Capital Region
—and is composed of barangays.
- In
Poland
, a
municipality (gmina) is a part of a
county (powiat).
- In
Portugal
, a municipality (município or concelho) is a directly elected local area
authority generally consisting of a main town and surrounding
villages, with wide-ranging local administration powers.
Apart
from the municipality of Corvo
, however,
concelhos are not the smallest administrative unit in
Portugal, that being the freguesia (civil parish). For central
government purposes, Portuguese municipalities are grouped into
districts (distritos).
- In Puerto Rico, a municipality
(municipio) is a town or city with a popularly elected
administration, including a mayor.
- In
Romania
, a municipality (municipiu) is a town or a city
ranked by law at this level. A commune is the lowest subdivision of a
judeţ.
- In
Russia
, several
types of municipalities ("municipal formations") exist; see
subdivisions
of Russia
- In
San
Marino
, there are also eight minor municipalities,
castelli.
- In
Serbia
, a
municipality (opština) is part
of a district (okrug)
- In
Slovakia
, a municipality (obec)
is part of a district (okres).
There are 2 891
municipalities in the country.
- In South Africa, district municipalities
and metropolitan
municipalities are subdivisions of the provinces, and local municipalities are
subdivisions of district municipalities.
- In
Sweden
, a
municipality (kommun) is part of a county
(län).
- In
Switzerland
, a municipality (commune/Gemeinde/comune)
is part of a canton (canton/Kanton/cantone) and
defined by cantonal law.
- In
the United Arab
Emirates
, a municipality is part of an emirate, and is defined by the law of the specific
emirates.
- In
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
, the term "municipality" is rarely used and the
municipal level of government used in other countries shares
characteristics with (but is not identical to) the civil parish, town,
city, borough, district, and/or
unitary authority, depending on
the location. The term "municipal" is used to refer to
things pertaining to the government of a town or city.
- In
the United
States
, the entities that have status as a municipality
vary from state to state. Cities,
towns, boroughs, or villages are common
terms for municipalities. Townships, counties, and parishes are not generally considered to be
municipalities, although there are exceptions. In some states,
towns have a non-municipal status similar to townships. Likewise,
some townships have full municipal status.
- In
Venezuela
, a municipality (municipio) is part of a state, as well as a
subdivision of the Capital
District (estado).
First-level entities and other forms of municipalities
- In
the People's
Republic of China
, a direct-controlled
municipality (直辖市 in pinyin: zhíxiáshì)
is a city with equal status to a province: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing
(see Municipality of China)
- In
the Republic of
China
on Taiwan
, a
municipality (直轄市 in Wade-Giles: chi-hsia-shih) is a city with
equal status to a province: Taipei
and
Kaohsiung
. (see Municipality of China)
- In
Jersey
, a
municipality refers to the honorary officials elected to run each
of the 12 Parishes into which it
is subdivided. This is the highest level of regional
government in this jurisdiction.
- In
Macedonia
, 84 municipalities (opštini;
singular: opština) were established in 2004, reduced from
123 created in 1996.
- In
Portugal
, a municipality (município/concelho) is the primary local administrative unit.
Although it is a part of a district (distrito) for certain national
administrative purposes, the municipality is not subordinate to the
district and decentralization is doing away with the districts. A
municipality contains one or more freguesias.
- In Puerto Rico, there are no first
order administrative divisions, and the municipalities
(municipio)
serves as second-order, but first level, administrative
divisions.
- In
Montenegro
, a municipality (opština) is the topmost regional
division
- In
Slovenia
, a municipality (občina) is the primary
local administrative
unit. There are 210 of them, 11 of which have a special
"Urban" status with additional autonomy.
- In
Spain
, a municipality (municipio) is the primary local administrative unit.
It is a part of a province (provincia) for all national
administrative purposes. In the Galicia
region, the municipalities are called concellos, and in the Principality of Asturias region, a
municipality is called conceyu. In
these two regions a municipality contains one or more parroquias.
See also