eme Turkey a coastal Turkish town with houses in regional style and an Ottoman Castle. The alpine town of Davos in the Swiss Alps. Reading England is a large town which has unsuccessfully tried to become a city.

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world so that for example many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages while many British "small towns" would qualify as cities in the United States. Contents 1 Origin and use 2 Age of towns scheme 3 By country 3.1 Australia 3.2 Austria 3.3 Bulgaria 3.4 Canada 3.5 Chile 3.6 Denmark 3.7 France 3.8 Germany 3.9 Greece and Cyprus 3.10 Hong Kong 3.11 Hungary 3.12 Iceland 3.13 Ireland 3.14 India 3.15 Iran 3.16 Latvia 3.17 Lithuania 3.18 Netherlands 3.19 New Zealand 3.20 Poland 3.21 Portugal 3.22 Russia 3.23 Sweden 3.24 Ukraine 3.25 United Kingdom 3.25.1 England and Wales 3.25.2 Scotland 3.26 United States 3.26.1 Alabama 3.26.2 Arizona 3.26.3 California 3.26.4 Hawaii 3.26.4.1 Oahu 3.26.5 Illinois 3.26.6 Maryland 3.26.7 Nevada 3.26.8 New England 3.26.9 New Jersey 3.26.10 New York 3.26.11 Pennsylvania 3.26.12 Utah 3.26.13 Virginia 3.26.14 Wyoming 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links Origin and use

The word town shares an origin with the German word Zaun the Dutch word tuin and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the original meaning of the word: a fence of any material.

In English and Dutch the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In English it was a small city that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications and built a palisade or stockade instead (many early English settlements in North America used stockades.) In the Netherlands this space was a garden more specifically those of the wealthy 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 Hampton Court). In Old Norse tun means a (grassy) place between farmhouses.

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 any distinction between toun (fortified municipality) and burgh (unfortified municipality) as claimed by somewho 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 hamlets 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 (CDPs) 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 10000 inhabitants today some consider an urban place of fewer than 100000 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:1 Infantile towns with no clear zoning Juvenile towns which have developed an area of shops Adolescent towns where factories have started to appear Early mature towns with a separate area of high-class housing Mature towns with defined industrial commercial and various types of residential area By country Australia In Australia towns are commonly understood to be centers of population not formally declared to be cities and usually with a population in excess of about 250 people.citation needed Centers too small to be called towns are generally understood to be a township. In addition local governments are officially styled as towns in Queensland Western Australia and the Northern Territory. In Victoria (other states) localities may be described as a town if they contain a town as described above. Austria In Austria designations are similar to those in Germany with a trichotomy in Gemeinde Markt(gemeinde) and Stadt. Bulgaria Main article: List of cities and towns in Bulgaria The historic part of Plovdiv a major town in central 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 but infrastructure requirements remain. Canada Main articles: List of towns in Canada and Municipal government in 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 (municipality 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 small villages and 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".2 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 "kbstad" (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 The town of Salins-les-Bains 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 dpartement 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 2000 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. However the International Statistics Conference of 1887 defined different sizes of Stadt based on their population size as follows: Landstadt ("country town"; under 5000) Kleinstadt ("small town"; 5000 to under 20000) Mittelstadt ("middle town"; between 20000 and 100000) and Grostadt ("large town"; over 100000).3 The term Grostadt may be translated as "city". In addition Germans may speak of Millionenstadt a city with over 1000000 inhabitants or even a Megastadt. 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. Drfer) 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. Greece and Cyprus Greeks do not have different words to express 'town' and 'city'. The word they use to say both is (fem) (pli). Though sometimes (rarely in everyday speech) they use the word (kompoli) (fem) to refer to a town. For Greeks a town (kompoli) is a human settlement with a population of 2.000 - 9.999. If a settlement has a lower population it is considered a village ( chorj). For the cities Greeks use the word 'pli' whereas for bigger cities with a population above 1 million they usually use another name (mitrpoli) in English Metropolis. Hong Kong This section requires expansion. Main article: List of cities and towns in Hong Kong Almost every town in Hong Kong has its own town hall. The picture shows the Sha Tin Town Hall in the town of Sha Tin. 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 (Tung Chung-Tai Ho). Hungary Gyr In Hungary a village can gain the status of "vros" (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 "vrosi rang" nowadays. Before the fall of communism in 1990 Hungarian villages under 10000 residents were not allowed to become towns. Recently some settlements as small as 2500 souls have received the rank of town (e.g. Zalakaros or Gnc) 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 50000 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.citation needed Iceland Main article: List of cities and towns in Iceland Ireland Main article: List of towns in the 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 7500 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 council and 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 7500 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 2000 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/census2006Appendices.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 20000 inhabitants. On the basis of population and other issues the state government notifies a larger community (over 10000) as a notified area and its administration is under the locally elected notified area committee. A settlement over 20000 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 5000; ii) at least 75 per cent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and iii) a density of population of at least 400 per km2. (1000 per sq. mile).4 Iran Shahrak-e Gharb an example of shahrak in Iran. In contemporary Persian texts no distinction is made between "city" and "town"; both translate as "Shahr" (). In older Persian texts (until the first half of the 20th century) the Arabic word "Qasabeh" () 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 () (lit.: small city). Another smaller type of town or neighborhood in a big city is called Kuy (). 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-shahr (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 (). Shahrestan itself is a subdivision of Ostan (Province). Latvia In Latvia towns and cities are indiscriminately called pilsta in singular form. The name is a contraction of two Latvian words: pils (castle) and sta (fence) making it very obvious what is meant by the word - what is situated between the castle and the castle fence. However a city can be called lielpilsta in reference to its size. 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 Hague 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. New Zealand In New Zealand a town is a built-up area that is not large enough to be considered a city. Historically this definition corresponded to a population of between approximately 1000 and 20000. Towns have no independent legal existence being administered simply as built-up parts of districts or in some cases of cities. New Zealand's towns vary greatly in size and importance ranging from small rural service centres to significant regional centres such as Blenheim and Taupo. Typically once a town reaches a population of somewhere between 20000 and 30000 people it will begin to be informally regarded as a city. One who regards a settlement as too small to be a town will typically call it a "township" or "village." Poland Main article: List of cities and towns in 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 wie). Town status is conferred by administrative decree some settlements remain villages even though they have a larger population than many smaller towns. Portugal Like other Iberian languages in Portuguese there is a traditional distinction between towns vilas and cities cidades. The difference is defined by law5 and a town must have: at least 3000 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 cities6 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 The town of Reutov is separated from the city of Moscow just by the MKAD highway. Main article: Types of inhabited localities in 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 Before 1971 132 larger municipalities in Sweden enjoyed special royal charters as stad (town) instead of kommun (which is similar to a US county). But since 1971 all municipalities are officially defined as kommun thus making no legal difference between for instance Stockholm and a small countryside municipality. However every urban area that was a stad before 1971 is still a called stad in daily speech and since the 1980s 14 of these municipalities market themselves as stad again although it has no legal or administrative significance as they still have refer to themselves as kommun in all legal documentation. Today Statistics Sweden defines a stad as an urban area of at least 10000 inhabitants. In the Swedish language the term for a city is storstad (big town) but there is no clear definition as to when a stad should be called a storstad. Most Swedes would only call Stockholm Gothenburg and Malm storstder i.e. "cities". Ukraine Street in a large Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk 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 10000. 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 2000 and 10000. United Kingdom Main article: City status in the United Kingdom England and Wales Main articles: List of urban areas in England by population and list of urban areas in Wales by population A traditional English town center at Rugby 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. Bishop's Stortford It appears that a city may become a town though perhaps only through administrative error: Rochester (Kent) 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. Scotland Main articles: List of burghs in Scotland and List of towns and cities in Scotland by population 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-governance 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. United States This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2007) The tiny farming community of Wyatt Indiana 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 10000 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. Alabama In Alabama the legal use of the terms "town" and "city" are based on population. A municipality with a population of 2000 or more is a city while less than 2000 is a town (Code of Alabama 1975 Section 11-40-6). For legislative purposes municipalities are divided into eight classes based on population. Class 8 includes all towns plus cities with populations of less than 6000 (Code of Alabama 1975 Section 11-40-12). 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 Los Gatos California for example reads "City of Los Gatos" but the words engraved on the building above the front entrance when the city hall was built read "Town of Los Gatos." There are also signs at the municipal corporation limit some of which welcome visitors to the "City of Los Gatos" while older adjacent signs welcome people to the "Town of Los Gatos." 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. Hawaii Oahu The Hawaiian Island of Oahu has various communities 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. Illinois In Illinois the word town has been used both to denote a subdivision of a county called a township7 and also to denote a form of municipality more similar to a village being generally governed by a president and trustees rather than a mayor.8 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.9 Maryland While generally a "town" is usually considered a smaller entity than a city legally they are exactly the same as far as Maryland law is concerned. With the exception of the Independent city of Baltimore (which is a special case) in Maryland there is no difference between a "city" and a "town" it is simply part of the name that was chosen to designate an incorporated municipality. It's essentially the same as a corporate business entity choosing to have a name with "incorporated" or with "corporation" both terms mean the same thing. 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 (186020 in 2000 Census) home of the Las Vegas Strip. Most county seats are also towns not cities. New England Main article: New England town 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 Jersey Main article: Town (New Jersey) A Town in the context of New Jersey local government refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government. While Town is often used as a shorthand to refer to a Township the two are not the same. The Town Act of 1895 allowed any municipality or area with a population exceeding 5000 to become a Town through a petition and referendum process. Under the 1895 Act a newly incorporated town was divided into at least three wards with two councilmen per ward serving staggered two year terms and one councilman at large who also served a two year term. The councilman at large served as chairman of the town council. The Town Act of 1988 completely revised the Town form of government and applied to all towns incorporated under the Town Act of 1895 and to those incorporated by a special charter granted by the Legislature prior to 1875. Under the 1988 Act the mayor is also the councilman at large serving a term of two years unless increased to three years by a petition and referendum process. The Council under the Town Act of 1988 consists of eight members serving staggered two-year terms with two elected from each of four wards. One councilman from each ward is up for election each year. Towns with different structures predating the 1988 Act may retain those features unless changed by a petition and referendum process. Two new provisions were added in 1991 to the statutes governing towns First a petition and referendum process was created whereby the voters can require that the mayor and town council be elected to four-year terms of office. The second new provision defines the election procedure in towns with wards. The mayor in a town chairs the town council and heads the municipal government. The mayor may both vote on legislation before council and veto ordinances. A veto may be overridden by a vote of two-thirds of all the members of the council. The council may enact an ordinance to delegate all or a portion of the executive responsibilities of the town to a municipal administrator. Fifteen New Jersey municipalities currently have a type of Town nine of which operate under the town form of government. New York Main article: Administrative divisions of New York#Town 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 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." 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. Utah See also: List of cities and towns in Utah In Utah the legal use of the terms "town" and "city" are based on population. A municipality with a population of 1000 or more is a city while less than 1000 is a town. In addition cities are divided into five separate classes based on population.10 Utah code governing the requirements for cities and town including the requirements that each separate class city can be found at the Utah Legislature website. 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 counties.11 Wyoming Wyoming statute indicates towns are incorporated municipalities with populations of less than 4000. Municipalities of 4000 or more residents are considered "first-class cities." According to 2006-2008 United States Census estimates the Hempstead New York (the westernmost town in Long Island New York) is the largest town in the United States with a population of almost 780000 people12 making it larger than the cities of Boston or Seattle. See also Commuter town Company town Developed environments List of towns Location (geography) Megalopolis (city type) Town charter Town Hall Town limits Town privileges Town square Notes Goodall B. (1987) The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography. London: Penguin. "Byopgrelsen pr. 1. januar - Varedeklaration - Danmarks Statistik". Dst.dk. 2005-03-22. http://www.dst.dk/Vejviser/dokumentation/Varedeklarationer/emnegruppe/emne.aspxsysrid000766. Retrieved 2010-08-06.  Universitt Dortmund: Kleine und mittlere Stdte - Blaupausen der Grostadt Dokumentation des Expertenkolloquiums am 29. April 2004 in Dortmund "Indian Census". Censusindia.gov.in. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/. Retrieved 2010-08-06.  "Law n. 11/82 (Lei das designaes e determinao de categoria das povoaes) of June 2nd" (PDF). http://www.povt.qren.pt/tempfiles/20080213151143moptc.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-06.  "Flags of the World". Crwflags.com. http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/pt-m.html#rules. Retrieved 2010-08-06.  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 5/211 et seq. "Utah Code Title 10 Chapter 2 Section 301". Utah State Legislature. http://le.utah.gov/code/TITLE10/htm/1002030100.htm. Retrieved May 11 2010.  Charles A. Grymes. "County vs. Town vs. City in Virginia". "Cities own and maintain their roads while Virginia counties (except for Arlington and Henrico) rely upon VDOT for road maintenance. Cities get a fixed allocation of state funding for building and maintaining those roads while counties must compete with each other and other VDOT priorities for a substantial portion of their road budget. Cities have been granted more authorities such as the right of city councils to issue bonds to build roads without a voter referendum (counties must get voter approval in a referendum before issuing road bonds)... In Virginia towns have distinct boundaries established by the General Assembly or by courts guided by laws passed by the legislature. Towns are *not* independent from counties; residents of towns are still residents of the county in which the town is located. For example residents of the four towns of Haymarket Quantico Dumfries and Occoquan are also residents of Prince William County. They pay both town and county property taxes and town residents get to vote for a town council/mayor."  "Hempstead Nassau county New York" U.S. Census Fact Sheet References Australian Bureau of Statistics: Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) 2005 External links Look up town in Wiktionary the free dictionary. Open-Site Regional Contains information about towns in numerous countries. Geopolis : research group university of Paris-Diderot France Access to Geopolis Database v d eTypes of administrative country subdivisions Smallcaps indicate a type used by ten or more countries. Current English terms Alpine resort  Area (Insular area  Local government area  Special area  Urban (urbanized) area)  Bailiwick  Banner (Autonomous banner)  Block  Borough (County borough  Metropolitan borough)  Canton  Capital (Federal capital)  Circle  Circuit  City (Autonomous city  Chartered city  Independent city  Rural city)  Colony  Commune  Community (Autonomous community  Residential community)  Condominium  Constituency  County (Administrative county  Autonomous county  Metropolitan county)  Department  District (Autonomous district  Capital district  City district  Federal district  Metropolitan district  Municipal district  Subdistrict  Regional district)  Division (Cadastral division)  Duchy  Eldership  Federal dependency  Governorate  Hamlet  Municipality (Direct-controlled municipality  District municipality  Regional municipality  Regional county municipality  Rural municipality  Specialized municipality)  Neighbourhood  Parish (Civil parish)  Periphery  Prefecture (Autonomous prefecture  Subprefecture  Super-prefecture)  Principality (Co-principality)  Protectorate  Province (Autonomous province)  Quarter  Regency  Region (Autonomous region  Capital region  Special administrative region)  Republic (Autonomous republic)  Reservation (Reserve)  Riding  Sector  Shire  State  Suzerainty  Territory (Capital territory  Dependent territory  National territory  Union Territory)  Unit (Autonomous territorial unit  Local administrative unit)  Town  Townland  Township (Civil township)  Village (Summer village)  Ward Current non-English and loanword terms Amt  Arrondissement  Bairro  Bakhsh  Baladiyah  Barangay  Bezirk / Regierungsbezirk  Comarca  Comune  Dara  Deme  Frazione  Freguesia  Gmina  l  Jude  Kommun  Localit  Mahalle  Megye  Nome  Oblast  Okrug (Autonomous okrug)  Ostn  Powiat  Raion  Ranchera  Shabiyah  Shahr  Shahrestn  Ssla  Taluka  Tehsil  Vingtaine  Voivodeship  Wilayah  Woreda Defunct and historical English terms Agency  Barony  Burgh  Diocese  Exarchate  Free imperial city  Hide  Hundred  Imperial Circle  March  Praetorian prefecture  Presidency  Residency  Rural district  Sanitary district  Tithing  Urban district  Viscountcy (Viscounty) Defunct and historical non-English terms Commote  Heerlijkheid  Katepanikion  Liwa  Naucrary  Pagus  Pargana  Plas  Satrapy  Theme  Subah See also: Census division  Electoral division  Political division  Arabic terms for country subdivisions  French terms for country subdivisions  Spanish terms for country subdivisions