A
municipality or
general-purpose district (see also:
special-purpose district) is an administrative region generally composed of a clearly defined area 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.
- In China, a municipality (直辖市 in pinyin: zhíxiéshì) is a city with equal status to a province: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing
- 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 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 the Netherlands, a municipality (gemeente) is part of a province (provincie).
- In Japan, any government other than the Japanese national government is called a municipality.
- 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 Puerto Rico, a municipality (municipio) serves as a second-order administrative division.
- In Spain, the english terms is equivalent to comarca. A comarca is composed by some cityhalls[?] (the cityhall´s territory in Spains is the ) and is smaller than a province.
- 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 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 also: Mayor, Mayor-council government, Council-manager government, Political science, Special-purpose district, Subnational entity
