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A residential community is a community, usually a small town or city, that is composed mostly of residents, as opposed to commercial businesses and/or industrial facilities, all three of which are considered to be the three main types of occupants of the typical community.

Residential communities are typically communities that help support more commercial or industrial communities with consumers and workers; this phenomenon is probably due to the fact that some people prefer not to live in an urban or industrial area, but rather a suburban or rural setting. For this reason, they are also called dormitory towns, bedroom communities, or commuter towns.

An example of a residential community would include a small town or city located a number of miles outside of a larger city, or a large town or city located near a smaller, yet more commercially- or industrially-centered, town or city.

In the mainland of the People's Republic of China, a community (社区), also called residential unit or residential quarter (小区) or neighbourhood (居民区) or residential community (居住区), is an urban residential area and its residents administrated by a subdistrict (街道办事处). For example, Beijing is made up of several districts and counties. Districts are the urban area, counties are the rural area. Every district of Beijing (e.g., Chaoyang District) has many subdistricts such as the Panjiayuan subdistrict), and every subdistrict administers (thus is divided into) many communities (e.g. Panjiayuan Subdistrict administers Panjiayuan Community, East Panjiayuan Community, South Panjiayuan Community, East Wusheng Community, South Mofang Community, etc. 12 communities, whose geographical positions are adjacent). Every community has a community committee or neibourhood committee or residents' committee (社区居民委员会), and every committee administrates the dwellers living in that community.

• Political divisions of China