A
town is a
settlement ranging from a few hundred to
several thousand (occasionally hundreds of thousands) inhabitants,
although it may be applied loosely even to huge
metropolitan areas; the precise meaning
varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal
definition. Usually, a "town" is thought of as larger than a
village but smaller than a "
city", though there are exceptions to this
rule.Historically, in Great Britain at least, a village became a
town only when it had been granted a charter to hold a regular
livestock market. This had little to do with the size of the
population.
The word "town" is of native
Germanic origin,
tūn, from Old
English, which means an area of land enclosed by walls or a
fence.
Origin of the word and use around the world
The word
Town is related to the
German word
Zaun [tsown ≈ English]
the
Dutch word
tuin
[toin ≈ English], and the
Norse/Norwegian
tun [tun ≈ English]. The
German word
zaun comes closest to the original meaning of
the word: some sort of fence of any material. It is thin and may
vary from some vertical piles with only one (electric) wire, to a
wooden construction that does not allow one to see through it (ex.
construction sites), or a safe fence around a prison or, until
1989, between East and West Germany. (Although it was called the
German Wall, this name originated from the wall in Berlin, made of
solid stone and later concrete construction).
In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of
the space these fences used to enclose. In English that was a small
city which could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or
other larger fortifications, and built a
palisade/stockade instead (many early English
settlements in North America used stockades.) In the Netherlands,
this space was a garden, more specifically the richer ones which
had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of palace
't Loo in Apeldoorn which was the example for the privy garden of
William and Mary at Hamptoncourt). In
Norse/Norwegian
tun means the (grassy)
place between the farm houses.
In
Old English and Early and Middle
Scots, the word
ton,
toun, etc. could refer to kinds of settlements as
diverse as agricultural estates and holdings, partly picking up the
Norse sense (as in the Scots word
fermtoun) at one end of the scale, to
fortified municipality at the other. If there was ever properly any
distinction between
toun (fortified municipality) and
burgh (unfortified municipality), it did not last in
practice as
burghs and
touns developed. For
example "Edina Burgh" or "Edinburgh" (called a city today) was
built around a fort and eventually came to have a defensive
wall.
In some cases, "town" is an alternate name for "city" or "village"
(especially a larger village). Sometimes, the word "town" is short
for "township." In general, today towns can be differentiated from
townships,
villages,
or
hamlet on the basis of their
economic character, in that most of a town's population will tend
to derive their living from manufacturing
industry,
commerce, and
public service rather than
primary
industry such as
agriculture or
related activities.
A place's population size is not a reliable determinant of urban
character.
In many areas of the world, as in India
at least
until recent times, a large village might contain several times as
many people as a small town. In the United Kingdom
, there are historical cities that are far
smaller than the larger towns.
The modern phenomenon of extensive
suburban
growth, satellite urban development, and migration of city-dwellers
to villages have further complicated the definition of towns,
creating communities urban in their economic and cultural
characteristics but lacking other characteristics of urban
localities.
Some forms of non-rural settlement, such as temporary
mining locations, may be clearly non-rural, but have
at best a questionable claim to be called a town.
Towns often exist as distinct governmental units, with legally
defined borders and some or all of the appurtenances of local
government (e.g., a
police force). In the
United States these are referred to as "incorporated towns". In
other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be
"unincorporated". Note that the existence of an unincorporated town
may be legally set forth through other means, as through zoning
districts. In the case of some
planned
communities, the town exists legally in the form of covenants
on the properties within the town. The
United States Census identifies many
Census Designated Places by
the names of unincorporated towns which lie within them; however,
those CDPs typically include rural and suburban areas and even
surrounding villages and other towns.
The distinction between a town and a city similarly depends on the
approach adopted: a city may strictly be an administrative entity
which has been granted that designation by law, but in informal
usage, the term is also used to denote an urban locality of a
particular size or importance: whereas a
medieval city may have possessed as few as
10,000 inhabitants, today some consider an urban place of fewer
than 100,000 as a town, even though there are many officially
designated cities that are very, very much smaller than that.
Age of Towns scheme
Australian geographer
Thomas
Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on
their age and pattern of
land use. He
identified five types of town:
Australia
In
Australia, the status of a town is
formally applied in only a few states. Most states do define
cities, and towns are commonly understood to be those centers of
population not formally declared to be cities and usually with a
population in excess of about 250 people.
The creation and
delimitation of
Local Government
Areas is the responsibility of the state and territory
Governments. In all states and the Northern Territory each
incorporated area has an official status. The various LGA status
types currently in use are:
- New South Wales
: Cities (C) and Areas (A)
- Victoria
: Cities (C), Rural Cities (RC), Boroughs (B) and
Shires (S)
- Queensland
: Cities (C), Shires (S), Regions, Towns (T) and
Island Councils (IC)
- South Australia
: Cities (C), Rural Cities (RC),
Municipalities/Municipal Councils (M), District Councils (DC),
Regional Councils (RegC) and Aboriginal Councils (AC)
- Tasmania
: Cities (C)
and Municipalities (M)
- Western Australia
: Cities (C), Towns (T) and Shires (S)
- Northern Territory
: Cities (C), Towns (T), Community Government
Councils (CGC) and Shires (S).
Austria
In
Austria
designations are similar to those in southern
Germany with a trichotomy
in Gemeinde, Markt(gemeinde) and
Stadt.
Bulgaria
In
Bulgaria
the Council of
Ministers defines what constitutes a settlement, while the
President of Bulgaria grants
each settlement its title. In 2005 the requirement that
villages that wish to classify themselves as town must have a
social and technical infrastructure, as well as a population of no
less than 3500 persons. For resort settlements the requirements are
lower with the population needing to be no less than 1000 persons,
(infrastructure requirements remain).
Canada
The legal
definition of a town in Canada
varies by
province or territory, as each has jurisdiction over defining and
legislating towns, cities and other types of municipal organization
within its own boundaries.
The
province of Quebec
is unique in
that it makes no distinction under law between towns and
cities. There is no intermediate level in French between
village and
ville (
municipalité is an
administrative term usually applied to a legal, not geographical
entity), so both are combined under the single legal status of
ville. While an informal preference
may exist among English speakers as to whether any individual
ville is commonly referred to as a city or as a town, no
distinction and no objective legal criteria exist to make such a
distinction under law.
Chile
In
Chile
towns are defined by the National Statistics
Institute (INE) as an urban entity with a population from 2001 to
5000 or an area with a population from 1001 to 2000 and an
established economic activity.
Denmark
In
Denmark
no distinction is made between "city", "town" and
"village"; all three translate as "by".
For very small villages (
hamlets) the
word "landsby" is used (appropriately. "country town" or "rural
town"). For statistical purposes only such urban areas having at
least 200 inhabitants are counted as "by"..
Historically some towns held various privileges, the most important
of which was the right to hold market. They were administered
separately from the rural areas in both fiscal, military and legal
matters. Such towns are known as "købstad" (roughly the same
meaning as "borough" albeit deriving from a different etymology)
and they retain the exclusive right to the title even after the
last vestiges of their privileges vanished through the reform of
the local administration carried through in 1970.
France
From an administrative standpoint, the smallest level of local
authorities are all called
"communes".
However, some laws do
treat these authorities differently based on the population and
specific rules apply to the three main cities Paris
, Lyon
and Marseille
. For historical reasons, six communes in the
Meuse
département still exist as independent entities
despite having no inhabitant at all.
For statistical purposes, the national statistical institute
(
INSEE) operates a distinction between urban
areas with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants and bigger communes, the
latter being called "villes". Smaller settlements are usually
called "villages". In any case, the French language does not
commonly make a difference between towns and cities.
Germany
Germans
do not, in general, differentiate between
city and town. The German word for both is
"Stadt" as it is in many other languages that do not make any
difference between the Anglo-Saxon concepts. A city with more than
100,000 inhabitants is called a "Großstadt". In Germany also the
historical importance (many settlements became a "Stadt" by being
awarded a
"Stadtrecht" in medieval
times), the centrality and the population density of an urban place
might be taken as characteristics of a "city". The word for a
"village", as a smaller settlement, is "Dorf".
In southern German states the word
Markt or
Marktflecken designates a town-like residential community
between village and city.
The current local government organization is subject to state law
of a
state and the related
denomination of a specific settlement may differ from its common
designation (e.g.
Samtgemeinde - a Lower Saxony
legal term for a group of villages (Dorf,
pl. Dörfer) with common local government).
Designations in different states are as diverse as for example in
Australian States and Territories and differ from state to
state.
Hong Kong
- Main article: List of cities and
towns in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
started developing new towns in the 1950s, to
accommodate booming populations. The very first new towns
included
Tsuen Wan and
Kwun Tong. In the late 1960s and the 1970s,
another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns
have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and
development provides plenty of room for public housing projects.
Rail transport is usually available at a later stage.
The first towns are
Sha
Tin
, Tsuen Wan,
Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O. Tuen Mun was intended to be self-reliant,
but was not successful and turned into a
bedroom community like the other new
towns.
More recent developments are Tin Shui
Wai
and North
Lantau .
Hungary
In
Hungary
, a village can gain the status of "város" (town),
if it meets a set of diverse conditions for quality of life and
development of certain public services and utilities (e.g. having a
local secondary school or installing full-area sewage collection
pipe network). Every year the Minister of Internal Affairs
selects candidates from a committee-screened list of applicants,
whom the President of Republic usually affirms by issuing a bill of
town's rank to them. Since being a town carries extra fiscal
support from the government, many relatively small villages try to
win the status of "városi rang" nowadays.
Before the
fall of communism in
1990, Hungarian villages under 10,000 residents were not allowed to
become towns. Recently some settlements as small as 2,500 souls
have received the rank of town (e.g. Zalakaros or Gönc) and meeting
the conditions of development are often disregarded to quickly
elevate larger villages into towns. As of early 2007, there are 289
towns in Hungary, encompassing some 65% of the entire
population.
Towns of more than 50,000 people are able to gain the status of
"megyei jog" (town with the rights of a
county), which allows them to maintain own courts and
a higher degree of
autonomy. As of early
2007, there are only 23 such towns in Hungary.
Iceland
(Republic of) Ireland
The Local Government act 2001 provides that from
January 1, 2002 (section 10 subsection (3)
Within the county in
which they are situated and of which they form part, there continue
to be such other local government areas as are set out in Schedule
6 which - (a) in the case of the areas set out in Chapter 1 of Part
1 of that Schedule, shall be known as boroughs, and - (b) in the
case of the areas set out in Chapter 2 of Part 1 and Part 2 of that
Schedule, shall be known as towns, and in this Act a reference to a
town shall include a reference to a borough.
These provisions affect the replacement of the boroughs, Towns and
urban districts which existed before then. Similar reforms in the
nomenclature of local authorities ( but not their functions) are
effected by section 11 part 17 of the act includes provision
(section 185(2))
Qualified electors of a town having a
population of at least 7,500 as ascertained at the last preceding
census or such other figure as the Minister may from time to time
prescribe by regulations, and not having a town council, may make a
proposal in accordance with paragraph (b) for the establishment of
such a counciland contains provisions enabling the
establishment of new town councils and provisions enabling the
dissolution of existing or new town councils in certain
circumstances
The reference to
town having a population of at least 7,500 as
ascertained at the last preceding census hands much of the
power relating to defining what is in fact a town over to the
Central Statistics Office and their criteria are published as part
of each census
- Planning and Development act 2000
Another reference to the Census and its role in determining what is
or is not a town for some administrative purpose is in the Planning
and Development act 2000 (part II chapter I which provides for
Local area plans)
A local area plan shall be made in respect of an area which
—(i) is designated as a town in the most recent census of
population, other than a town designated as a suburb or environs in
that census, (ii) has a population in excess of 2,000, and (iii) is
situated within the functional area of a planning authority which
is a county council.
- Central Statistics Office Criteria
These are set out in full at
http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/census_2006_Appendices.pdf
In short they speak of "towns with legally defined boundaries" (
i.e. those established by the Local Government Act 2001) and the
remaining 664 as "census towns", defined by themselves since 1971
as
a cluster of 50 or more occupied dwellings in which within a
distance of 800 meters there is a nucleus of 30 occupied houses on
both sides of the road or twenty occupied houses on one side of the
road there is also a
200 meter criterion for
determining whether a house is part of a census town.
India
In
India, under most state laws, no village or settlement
can be classified as a town unless its population crosses 20,000
inhabitants. On the basis of population and other issues,
the state government notifies a larger community (over 10,000) as a
notified area, and its
administration is under the locally elected
notified area committee. A
settlement over 20,000 population would be classified, with a
charter from the state government as a
town, with a
town area committee. Some laws distinguish only towns and
villages from each other, but by usage, settlement with larger
populations, such as those having a
municipal committee or
municipal corporation would be called cities. The recent
Census of India classified all settlements above 5000 population
(subject to some other rules) as urban areas for the sake of
census.In the Census of India 2001, the definition of urban area
adopted is as follows: (a) All statutory places with a
municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area
committee, etc. (b) A place satisfying the following three criteria
simultaneously:i) a minimum population of 5,000;ii) at least 75 per
cent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural
pursuits; andiii) a density of population of at least 400 per
km
2. (1,000 per sq. mile).
Iran
In contemporary
Persian texts, no
distinction is made between "city" and "town"; both translate as
"Shahr" (شهر). In older Persian texts (until the first half of the
20th century), the Arabic word "Qasabeh" (قصبه) was used for a
town. However, in recent 50 years, this word has become
obsolete.
There is a word in Persian which is used for special sort of
satellite townships and city neighborhoods. It is
Shahrak
(شهرک), (lit.: small city).Another smaller type of town or
neighborhood in a big city is called
Kuy (کوی).
Shahrak and
Kuy each have
their different legal definitions.
Large cities such as Tehran
, Mashhad
, Isfahan
, Tabriz
, etc. which
have millions of populations are referred to as
Kalan-shahrکلانشهر (metropole).
The pace
in which different large villages have gained city status in
Iran
shows a dramatic increase in the last two
decades.
Bigger cities and towns usually are centers of a
township (in Persian:
Shahrestan
(شهرستان). Shahrestan itself is a subdivision of
Ostan
استان (Province).
Latvia
In
Latvia
, towns and
cities are indiscriminately called pilsēta in singular
form. The name is a
contraction of two Latvian words:
pils (castle) and
sēta (fence), making it very
obvious what is meant by the word - what is situated between the
castle and the castle fence. A village is called
ciemats
or
ciems in Latvian.
Lithuania
In
Lithuania
, towns are named miestelis or miestas. Cities
are named
didmiestis.
Villages are
named
kaimas or
vienkiemis.
Netherlands
In the
Netherlands
no distinction is made between "city" and "town";
both translate as "stad".
Before 1848 there was a legal distinction between stad and non-stad
parts of the country, but the word no longer has any legal
significance. About 220 places got "stadsrechten" (city rights) and
are still so called for historical and traditional reasons, though
the word is also used for large urban areas that never got such
rights. For example, The Hage, the third largest settlement of the
country, never received official city rights, but is undoubtedly
regarded as a city. The contrastive word for a
village as
a smaller settlement is
dorp.
Poland
Similarly
to Germany, in Poland
there is no
official distinction between a city and a town. The word for
both is
miasto (as distinct from a village or
wieś). Town status is conferred by administrative decree –
some settlements remain villages even though they have a larger
population than many smaller towns. See
List of cities and towns in
Poland.
Portugal
Like other Iberian languages, in
Portuguese there is a traditional
distinction between towns —
vilas
— and cities —
cidades. The
difference is defined by law, and a town must have:
- at least 3,000 inhabitants
- at least half of these services:
- health unit
- pharmacy
- cultural center
- public transportation network
- post office
- commercial food and drinking establishments
- primary school
- bank office
In special cases, some
villages may be
granted the status of town if they possess historical, cultural or
architectonic importance.
The Portuguese urban settlements
heraldry
reflects the difference between towns and cities, with the
coat of arms of a town bearing a crown with 4
towers, while the coat of arms of a city bears a crown with 5
towers. This difference between towns and cities is still in use in
other Portuguese speaking countries, but in Brazil is no longer in
use.
Russia
Unlike English, the
Russian
language does not distinguish the terms "city" and "town"—both
are translated as " " (
gorod). Traditionally, the term
"city" is applied to large metropolitan areas and the term
"town"—to smaller urban localities. Occasionally the term is
applied to
urban-type
settlements as well, even though the status of those is not the
same as that of a city/town proper.
Sweden
Sweden
canceled
the official legal term Town (in Swedish: Stad) in the year
1971. Only the word
Municipality
(in Swedish: Kommun.
In US English approximately County) was used, making no legal
difference between Stockholm
and a countryside municipality. Before that
there were a number of terms like "stad"/Town, "köping"/large
village etc. The definition of Town (stad) was that it was given
such a title. Since the 1980s some municipalities (13 out of 290),
who were "stad" before 1971, again call themselves town (stad), but
only in tourist advertising. This has no legal or administrative
significance whatsoever, and the municipalities have to use the
word "kommun" in laws. In other cases the seat of the municipality
is called "town".
There is no difference between city and town, both translates to
"stad" in Swedish. The word "stad" is still in use in Sweden,
referring to places which were "stad" before 1971.
Statistics Sweden defines a "stad" as an
urban area of at least 10,000
inhabitants.
Ukraine
There is no difference in the
Ukrainian language between the notions of
"town" and "city". Both these words are translated into Ukrainian
as " " (
misto). The smallest population of a city of
Ukraine can be about 10,000. Cities/towns should be distinguished
from
urban-type settlements ("
",
selyshche mis'koho typu; informally " ",
mistechko), which, although urban in nature, do not have a
city status. As a rule, the population of an urban-type settlement
is between 2,000 and 10,000.
United Kingdom
England and Wales
In
England
and Wales
, a
town traditionally was a settlement which had a charter to
hold a market or fair and
therefore became a "market town".
Market towns were distinguished from villages in that they were the
economic hub of a surrounding area, and were usually larger and had
more facilities.
In modern usage the term
town is used either for old
market towns, or for settlements which have a
Town Council, or for settlements which
elsewhere would be classed a city, but which do not have
the legal right to call
themselves such. Any
parish council can
decide to describe itself as a Town Council, but this will usually
only apply to the smallest "towns" (because larger towns will be
larger than a single civil parish).
Not all settlements which are commonly described as towns have a
"Town Council" or "Borough Council". In fact, because of many
successive changes to the structure of local government, there are
now few large towns which are represented by a body closely related
to their historic borough council. These days, a smaller town will
usually be part of a local authority which covers several towns.
And where a larger town
is the seat of a local
authority, the authority will usually cover a much wider area than
the town itself (either a large rural hinterland, or several other,
smaller towns).
Additionally, there are "new towns" which were created during the 20th
century, such as Basildon
, Redditch and Telford
. Milton Keynes
was designed to be a "new city" but legally it is
still a town despite its size.
Some settlements which describe themselves as towns (e.g.
Shipston-on-Stour
, Warwickshire
) are smaller than some large villages (e.g.
Kidlington
, Oxfordshire).
The status of a
city is reserved for places that have
Letters Patent entitling them to the
name, historically associated with the possession of a cathedral.
Some
large municipalities (such as Northampton
and Bournemouth
) are legally boroughs but
not cities, whereas some cities are quite small — such as Ely
or St
David's
for instance.
It
appears that a city may become a town, though perhaps only through
administrative error: Rochester 
has been a city for centuries but, when in 1998
when the Medway district was created, a
bureaucratic blunder meant that Rochester lost its official
city status and is
now technically a town.
It is
often thought that towns with bishops'
seats rank automatically as cities: however, Chelmsford
remains a town despite being the seat of the
diocese of
Chelmsford
. St.
Asaph
, which is the seat of the diocese of St Asaph, is another such
town. In reality, the pre-qualification of having a
cathedral of the established
Church of
England, and the formerly established
Church in Wales or
Church of Ireland, ceased to apply from
1888.
The word
town can also be used as a general term for urban
areas, including cities and in a few cases, districts within
cities. In this usage, a city is a type of town; a large one, with
a certain status.
For example, Greater London
is sometimes referred to colloquially as "London
town". (The "City of London
" is the historical nucleus, informally known as the
"Square Mile", and is administratively separate from the rest of
Greater London, while the City of Westminster
is also technically a city and is also a London borough). Camden Town
and Somers Town are
districts of London, as New Town
is a district of Edinburgh
- actually the Georgian centre.
See also
Scotland
A
town in Scotland
has no specific legal meaning and (especially in
areas which were or are still Gaelic-speaking) can refer to a mere
collection of buildings (e.g. a farm-town or in Scots ferm-toun), not all of which
might be inhabited, or to an inhabited area of any size which is
not otherwise described in terms such as city,
burgh, etc. Many locations of greatly
different size will be encountered with a name ending with
-town, -ton, -toun etc. (or beginning
with the Gaelic equivalent baile etc.).
A burgh (pronounced
burruh) is the
Scots' term for a town or a municipality.
They were highly
autonomous units
of
local government from
at least the 12th century until their abolition in 1975 when a new
regional structure of local
government was introduced across the country. Usually based
upon a town, they had a
municipal
corporation and certain rights, such as a degree of
self-government and representation in the
sovereign
Parliament of
Scotland adjourned in 1707.
The term no longer describes units of local government although
various claims are made from time to time that the legislation used
was not competent to change the status of the Royal Burghs
described below. The status is now chiefly ceremonial but various
functions have been inherited by current Councils (e.g. the
application of various endowments providing for public benefit)
which might only apply within the area previously served by a
burgh; in consequence a burgh can still exist (if only as a defined
geographical area) and might still be signed as such by the current
local authority. It should be noted that the word 'burgh' is
generally not used as a synonym for 'town' or 'city' in everyday
speech, but is reserved mostly for government and administrative
purposes.
Historically, the most important burghs were
royal burghs, followed by
burghs of regality and
burghs of barony. Some newer settlements
were only designated as
police burghs
from the 19th century onward, a classification which also applies
to most of the older burghs.
see also
List of towns
and cities in Scotland by population
United States
In the
United
States of America
, the
meaning of the term town varies from state to state. In some states, a town is
an incorporated
municipality, that is,
one with a
charter received from the state,
similar to a city (see
incorporated
town). In others, a town is unincorporated. In most places,
town refers to a small incorporated municipality of less
than 10,000 people, although some of these municipalities may be
called "cities."
The types of municipalities in U.S. states include cities, towns,
boroughs, villages, and
townships,
although most states do not have all five types. Many states do not
use the term "town" for incorporated municipalities.
In some states, like
New England states, New York
and Wisconsin
, "town" is used in the same way that civil township is used elsewhere.
In other
states, such as Michigan
, the term "town" has no official meaning and is
simply used informally to refer to a populated place, whether
incorporated or not.
Arizona
In
Arizona
the terms "town" and "city" are largely
interchangeable. A community may incorporate under either a
town or a city organization with no regard to population or other
restrictions according to Arizona law (see Arizona Revised
Statutes, Title 9). Cities may function under slightly differing
governmental systems, such as the option to organize a district
system for city governments, but largely retain the same powers as
towns. Arizona law also allows for the consolidation of neighboring
towns and the unification of a city and a town, but makes no
provision for the joining of two adjacent cities.
California
In
California
, the words "town" and "city" are synonymous by law
(see Cal. Govt. Code Secs. 34500-34504). There are two types
of cities in California - charter and general law. Cities organized
as charter cities derive their authority from a charter that they
draft and file with the state, and which, among other things,
states the municipality's name as "City of (Name)" or "Town of
(Name)." Government Code Sections 34500-34504 applies to cities
organized as general law cities, which differ from charter cities
in that they do not have charters but instead operate with the
powers conferred them by the pertinent sections of the Government
Code. Like charter cities, general law cities may incorporate as
"City of (Name)" or "Town of (Name)." Some cities change their
minds as to how they want to be called.
The sign in front of
the municipal offices in Colma, California
, for example, reads "City of Colma", but the words
engraved on the building above the front entrance when the city
hall was build read "Town of Colma." There are also signs at
the municipal corporation limit, some of which welcome visitors to
the "City of Colma" while older, adjacent signs welcome people to
the "Town of Colma." Meanwhile, the village does not exist in
California as a municipal corporation. Instead, the word "town" is
commonly used to indicate any unincorporated community that might
otherwise be known as an unincorporated village. Additionally, some
people may still use the word "town" as shorthand for "township",
which is not an incorporated municipality but an administrative
division of a county.
Illinois
In
Illinois
, the word town has been used both to denote a
subdivision of a county called a township, and also to denote a
form of chartered, incorporated, or unincorporated municipality,
more similar to a village, being generally
governed by a president and trustees rather than a mayor.
Under the current Illinois Municipal Code, an incorporated or
unincorporated town may choose to incorporate as a city or as a
village, but other forms of incorporation are no longer
allowed.
Nevada
In
Nevada
, a town
has a form of government, but is not considered to be
incorporated. It generally provides a limited range of
services, such as
land use
planning and recreation, while leaving most services to the
county.
Many communities have found this
"semi-incorporated" status attractive; the state has only 20
incorporated cities, and
towns as large as Paradise
(186,020 in 2000 Census), home of the Las Vegas
Strip
. Most county seats are also towns, not
cities.
New England
In the
six New
England
states, a town is a
municipality and a more important unit than the county. In Connecticut
, Rhode
Island
and 7 out of 14 counties in Massachusetts
, in fact, counties only exist as map divisions and
have no legal functions; in the other three states, counties are
primarily judicial districts, with other functions primarily in
New
Hampshire
and
Vermont
. In all six, towns perform functions that in
most states would be county functions. The defining feature of a
New England town, as opposed to a city, is that a
town meeting and a
board of selectmen serve as the main form
of government for a town, while cities are run by a mayor and a
city council.
For example, Brookline,
Massachusetts
is a town, even though it is fairly urban, because
of its form of government.
New York
In
New York, a
town is similarly a division of the county, but with less
importance than in New England. Of some importance is the fact
that, in New York, a town provides a closer level of governance
than its enclosing county, providing almost all municipal services
to unincorporated areas, called
hamlets, and
selected services to incorporated areas, called
villages. In
New York, a town typically contains a number of such hamlets and
villages. However, due to their independent nature, incorporated
villages may exist in two towns or even two counties. Everyone in
New York State who does not live in an
Indian reservation or
a city lives in a town and possibly in one of the town's hamlets or
villages. (Some other states have similar entities called
townships.) In New York, "town" is
essentially short for "township."
Oahu
The
Hawaiian
Island of Oahu
has
various municipalities that may be referred to as towns.
However,
the entire island is lumped as a single incorporated "city", the
City and County of Honolulu
. The towns on Oahu are merely unincorporated
census designated
places.
Pennsylvania
In
Pennsylvania
, there is only one municipality which is
incorporated as a "town": Bloomsburg
. Most of the rest of the state is
incorporated as townships (there are also boroughs and cities),
which function in much the same way as the towns of New York or New
England, although they may have different forms of
government.
Virginia
In
Virginia
, a town is an incorporated municipality similar to
a city (though with a smaller required minimum population), but
while cities are by Virginia law independent of counties, towns are
contained within a county.
Wyoming
Wyoming
statute indicates towns are incorporated
municipalities with populations of less than 4,000.
Municipalities of 4,000 or more residents are considered "first
class cities."
According
to the 2006 United States Census Hempstead,
New York
(western most Town in Long Island,
New York
) is the largest town in the United States.
The town of Hempstead has a population of over 760,000 people,
making it larger than San Francisco, Boston, or Seattle.
Vietnam
In
Vietnam
, a town is a part of a province. It has the
same level as a district and a district level city.
See also
References
- The New Oxford American Dictionary, Second Edition, Erin McKean
(Editor), 2096 pages, May 2005, Oxford University Press, ISBN
0-19-517077-6
- Goodall, B. (1987) The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography.
London: Penguin.
-
http://www.dst.dk/Vejviser/dokumentation/Varedeklarationer/emnegruppe/emne.aspx?sysrid=000766
- Indian
Census
- Law n.º 11/82 (Lei das designações e determinação de
categoria das povoações), of June, 2nd
- Flags of the World
- See the Township Code, 60 ILCS 1 et seq.
- See Phillips v. Town of Scales Mound, 195 Ill. 353,
357, 63 N.E. 180 (1902)
- See generally Article 2 of the Illinois Municipal
Code, 65 ILCS 5/2‑1‑1 et seq.
External links
- Open-Site Regional — Contains information about towns
in numerous countries.
- Geopolis
: research group, university of Paris-Diderot, France — Access to
Geopolis Database
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