1 : Municipality
2 : Municipalities as second level entities
3 : First level entities and other forms of municipalities
4 : See also
A municipality or general-purpose district (see also: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government.
Municipalities are not necessarily the same as townships.
In most countries, this is the smallest administrative subdivision that has its own democratically elected representative leadership.
Municipalities as second level entities
- In Austria, a municipaltity is part of a province (Bezirk and a Bundesland).
- In Belgium, a municipality (gemeente/commune) is part of a province (''provincie/province)
- In Brazil, a municipality (município'') is part of a state (estado)
- In Croatia, a municipality (općina) is part of a county (županija)
- In Denmark, a municipality (kommune) is part of a county (''amt)
- In Finland, a municipality (kunta/kommun) is part of a province (lääni/län)
- In France, a municipality (commune) is part of a department (département)
- In Germany, a municipality (Gemeinde) is part of a district (Kreis). Larger entities of the same level are named city (Stadt).
- In Italy, a municipality (comune) is part of a province (provincia) which is part of a region (regione).
- In Japan, any government other than the Japanese national government is called a municipality.
- In Mexico, a municipality (municipio'') is subdivision of a state (estado).
- In the Netherlands, a municipality (''gemeente) is part of a province (provincie).
- In Norway, a municipality (kommune) is part of a county (fylke)
- In the Philippines, a municipality (bayan) is part of a province (lalawigan) and is composed of barangays.
- In Serbia, a municipality (opština) is part of a county (okrug)
- 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 States, a municipality is a city, town, township, county, borough, parish, or any other similar division which is part of a U.S. state.
First level entities and other forms of municipalities
- In the People's Republic of China, a municipality (直辖市 in pinyin: zhíxiéshì) 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 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
- Municipalities of Libya, some very large.
See also
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