definition
strict definition
municipality tier
The tier of local self-government, from the smallest village to the largest city.
The municipality tier holds the units of local self-government: a council with defined powers over a defined territory, covering a settlement and the land belonging to it.
Size does not decide membership of this tier. A village of two hundred and a city of ten million occupy the same level, because both are the unit at which local administration happens, and because that is what makes them comparable across countries.
The tier covers its country without gaps, so every address falls in exactly one. What the unit is called locally, and whether it is a city, a town or a commune, is the region type.
Related definitions
-
1st level district tier
The first level of subdivision inside a municipality, holding the quarters residents name. -
2nd level district tier
The second level of subdivision inside a municipality, below a first-level district. -
3rd level district tier
The third level of subdivision inside a municipality, below a second-level district. -
city block tier
The tier for the smallest built unit, the ground enclosed by streets on every side. -
continent tier
The top of the region hierarchy, holding the seven landmasses everything else sits on. -
country or territory tier
The sovereign level of the hierarchy, holding states and the dependencies administered by them. -
group of countries tier
The tier for sets of countries treated as one unit, sitting under a continent. -
group of primary country divisions tier
The tier for areas that group several first-level divisions of one country into one named unit. -
land parcel tier
The lowest tier, holding the individual plot as the land register records it. -
metropolitan area tier
The tier for a city and the municipalities around it that function as one place. -
primary country division tier
The first level of subdivision inside a country, whatever that country calls it. -
secondary country division tier
The second level of subdivision inside a country, below the first and above the municipality. -
street tier
The tier holding streets, the reference an address is built on rather than an area of land. -
zone tier
The tier for named areas that cross the hierarchy instead of sitting in it.