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A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly referring to 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.

Municipalities are not necessarily the same as townships. 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 or Swedish kommun). The term derives from the medieval commune. Note that the word has absolutely no implication of communism; rather, the word "communism" derives from the word "commune" because of its striving towards a commune-like society.

The largest municipalities can be found in Canada and Greenland. Most likely the largest municipality is Avernasuaq in Greenland, which is larger than the whole United Kingdom.

• In Algeria, a municipality (commune) is part of a daïra, which is part of a wilaya; there are 1,541 communes 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 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
  • part of a canton (kanton)
  • a subdivision (grouped in regions)
• In Brazil, a municipality (município) is part of a state (estado)
• In Canada, a municipality is a city, town, township, county, or regional municipality which has been incorporated by statute by the legislatures of the provinces and territories. It is also a specific designation for certain municipalities in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario. Certain areas of 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 communes (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 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.
• 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 demoi or koinotetes (demoi with little population) which is then part of a prefecture (nomos) and then a larger region known as a periphery. 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).
• 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 Lebanon, a municipality is part of a district (Arabic: Qadaa) which is part of a Governorate (Region or Province, Arabic: Mouhafazah).
• 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)
• 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) 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) is a directly elected local area authority generally consisting of a main city and surrounding villages, with wide-ranging local administration powers. It is also a subdivision of a district for central government purposes(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 exist; see subdivisions of Russia
• In Serbia, a municipality (opština) is part of a county (okrug)
• In Slovakia, a municipality (obec) is part of a district (okres). There are 2 891 municipalities in the state.
• 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a municipality is governed by official political borders, such as that of the Greater Belfast area in Northern Ireland. As is the same for the Greater London area and not just the City of London. The term municipality and the word municipal in general is not commonly heard. Greater x area would be the most common in usage.
• 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.
• In Venezuela, a municipality (municipio) is part of a state, as well as a subdivision of the Capital District (estado).

• 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 New Mexico, it's commonly referred to as a County (see Bernalillo)

• 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.
• 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. A municipality contains one or more parroquias. In the Galicia region, the municipalities are called concellos.

Look up Municipality in
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• Category:Lists of municipalities (with lists for countries)
• Council of European Municipalities and Regions
• Administrative division
• Council-manager government
• Mayor
• Mayor-council government
• Muni
• Municipal government
• Municipal services
• Political science
• Special-purpose district
• Large list of European Municipalities