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Anindependent city orindependent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
In theHoly Roman Empire, and to a degree in itssuccessor states theGerman Confederation and theGerman Empire, so-called "free imperial cities" (nominative singularfreie Reichsstadt, nominative pluralfreie Reichsstädte) held the legal status ofimperial immediacy, according to which they were notsubinfeudated to anyvassal ruler and were instead subject to the authority of theEmperor alone. Examples includedHamburg,Bremen, andLübeck, along with others that gained and/or lost the privileges of immediacy over the course of the Empire's history.
A number of countries have made their national capitals into separate entities.
In countries with afederal structure, the federal capital is often separate from other jurisdictions in the country, and frequently has a unique system of government.
Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, has held the designation ofchartered city since 1991, when it was separated from the former province ofShewa. It shares this status with one other city,Dire Dawa.
Bamako, the capital of Mali, is contained within the Bamako Capital District.
Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, is its own district with provincial status surrounded by theProvince of Maputo.
Niger's capital,Niamey, comprises a capital district of Niger. It is surrounded by theTillabéri Department.
Nigeria's capitalAbuja is located in theFederal Capital Territory. The Territory was established in 1976, and the capital was formally moved fromLagos (the historic capital) in 1991.
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InTaiwan under theadministrative division system of the Republic of China, some cities aredirectly administered by theExecutive Yuan, some areadministered by provinces (the province of Taiwan is nominal), and some aresubordinate to counties. The centrally-administered (Taipei City,Kaohsiung City,New Taipei City,Taichung City,Tainan City, andTaoyuan City) and province-administered ones are like independent cities under this definition.
In both South Korea and North Korea,special cities are independent from their surrounding provinces and city-states under direct governance from the central government. Examples areSeoul,Busan,Daegu,Incheon,Gwangju,Daejeon andUlsan in South Korea andPyongyang andRason in North Korea. In South Korea, the main criterion for granting secession from the province is a population reaching one million.
In addition to its nine provinces, South Korea has seven province-level "metropolitan cities". By far the largest among these in terms of population is the capital,Seoul, called ateukbyeol-si (Korean: 특별시;Hanja: 特別市;lit. 'special city'), which is home to more than 20% of the entire population of the country. The remaining six independent cities are calledgwangyeok-si (광역시;廣域市;lit. 'large city') whose names are:Busan,Daegu,Daejeon,Incheon,Gwangju, andUlsan.
Historically, these independent cities have been carved from the province that surrounds them. Consequently, they typically share a strong regional and cultural identity with the adjoining province(s). For instance, Gwangju, located at the center ofJeolla region, is heavily associated with the region. Seoul and Incheon are said to make up theSeoul Metropolitan Area with the densely populatedGyeonggi that almost completely encompasses them.
One interesting relic of the newer independent cities is that, in some cases, the government administrative buildings (docheong) of the provinces they were once a part of are still located within city boundaries, meaning that these provinces have capitals that are not within their borders.
On 1 July 2012, Yeongi-gun, Chungcheongnam-do absorbed parts of Cheonan, Gongju and Cheongju, and became independent from Chungcheongnam-do as Sejong Special Self-governing City under the Special Act on the Installation of Sejong City. Currently, the population of Sejong Special Self-governing City is lower than that of the aforementioned metropolitan cities, but the population is increasing with the construction of a mixed-use administrative city. In 2006, the ruling party floated a proposal to eliminate all current province and independent-city borders. This plan would divide the entire republic into fifty or sixty city- or county-level administrations, similar to the system in Japan. The plan was intended to help reduce regional discrimination and animosity by eliminating provincial identity.
Many major cities in the Philippines are independent cities, classified as either "highly urbanized" or "independent component" cities. These cities are administratively and legally not subject to aprovince, and thus do not share their tax revenues with any province. In practise, most cities outside ofMetropolitan Manila are often still grouped with provinces that they werepartitioned from for the sake of convenience and simplicity. The national government and its agencies serve these cities through sub-offices for eachregion, to which the cities are indirectly subject. There are 38 such cities, with 16 being located inMetro Manila (including theCity of Manila, the national capital); eight in the rest ofLuzon and its surrounding islands; seven in theVisayas island group; and seven inMindanao and its surrounding islands.
Vietnam has sixmunicipalities that are not part of any of theVietnam's provinces. This includesHanoi, the capital of Vietnam; andHo Chi Minh City (Saigon), the most populous city of Vietnam.
In China, both Beijing andTianjin are independent of the surrounding province ofHebei, of which they were formerly a part. Similarly, Shanghai is now independent fromJiangsu andChongqing fromSichuan. Hong Kong andMacao have the status ofspecial administrative regions, separated from their original provinceGuangdong.[1]
In Thailand, the capitalBangkok operates independently of any province and is considered a special administrative area. It is aprimate city in terms of its large population, having nearly 8% of Thailand's total population.
In Indonesia, the national capitalJakarta is within theDaerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta (Jakarta Capital Special Region). Jakarta is considered one ofIndonesia's provinces, therefore Jakarta is headed by agovernor and not a mayor. However, Jakarta is divided into 5 smaller "administration-cities" (kota administrasi) and one "administration-regency" (kabupaten administrasi). The administration-cities areCentral,North,East,West, andSouth Jakarta. The Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) administration-regency is also included in the formal definition of Jakarta. All of these sub-units have their own degree of autonomy. Mayors of the five administration-cities and the regent of Kepulauan Seribu administration-regency are not elected, but directly appointed by the Governor and members of theProvincial Parliament of Jakarta. Furthermore, these sub-units do not have local parliament as opposed to other cities or regencies in Indonesia.
New Delhi and the old city of Delhi together form theNational Capital Territory of Delhi.
The capital of Iraq,Baghdad, is contained within a special capital district.
In Japan, Tokyo, as well as being a city, forms a prefecture, falling into a special category of "metropolitan prefecture" having some of the attributes of a city and some of a prefecture. Within Tokyo, there are smaller units, "wards", "cities", "towns", etc., but some of the responsibilities normally assigned to cities and towns in other Japanese prefectures are handled by theTokyo Metropolitan Government instead.[2][3][4]
The capital of Pakistan,Islamabad, is aplanned city within theIslamabad Capital Territory, which was created in 1960 out of thePunjab Province. The Territory elects representatives to both houses of the legislature. Before Islamabad was made the capital,Karachi was located in theFederal Capital Territory, which later reverted to theSindh Province.
In United Arab Emirates, theseven emirates are themselves city-states, or were historically, in particular,DubaiAjman andSharjah.
In Mongolia, its only independent city is its capitalUlaanbaatar which doesn't belong to any otherprovinces within the country.
The city ofVienna is afederal state within the Republic of Austria. A similar concept is thestatutory city.
TheBrussels Capital Region, a densely built-up area consisting of 19 communes including the capital cityBrussels, became one of Belgium's threeregions after the country was turned into a federation in 1970. (In Belgium there are special circumstances due to the country's language communities.)
TheBrčko District is independent of both Entities that constitute Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). All other cities and municipalities are under the jurisdiction of the Entity (in Republika Srpska) or under the jurisdiction of cantons (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). TheDayton Peace Agreement afforded the special designation as a district, while also creating theOffice of the High Representative that currently oversees the district of Brčko.
The capital city ofSofia has the status ofoblast (region).
The capital city ofZagreb has the status equal tožupanija (county), whereas all other cities and municipalities are under a county jurisdiction.
Historically, Croatian cities became independent by being named a "royal free city". Under theAustro-Hungarian Empire, the city ofRijeka (Fiume) was a separate city from theCounties of Hungary, and theModros-Fiume County that surrounded it.
The city of Paris is both adépartement and acommune; it is the only French city with this status. The Council of Paris (Conseil de Paris) exercises functions similar to those of a departmental council (conseil départemental) and a city council (conseil municipal). However, Paris and thedépartements closest to it are part of theÎle-de-Francerégion.Lyon is ametropole, a uniqueterritorial collectivity which includes the commune of Lyon itself and its suburbs. TheLyon metropole is an entity which is not part of the nearby Rhone department but it is still part of theAuvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, however it has significant more autonomy than a typical department. All together, the Lyon metropolis makes up the second largest city in France
In Germany, most of thefederal states are subdivided into administrative districts calledKreise (circles), each of which normally includes several towns or cities. However, a number of the more important and more populous cities are not part of aKreis, but are instead themselves each equivalent in status and functions to aKreis. Such cities are known askreisfreie Städte (literally, "district-free cities") – or, in the case ofBaden-Württemberg,Stadtkreise ("urban districts").
There are currently 110kreisfreie Städte (or equivalents). Of these, the 22 largest are:
Two cities in Germany, namelyBerlin andHamburg, are considered city-states (German:Stadtstaaten). Additionally, the state ofBremen is officially classified as a city-state although it consists of the two cities ofBremen andBremerhaven, which are separated by the state ofLower Saxony. Together with thirteen area states (German:Flächenländer) they form the sixteen federalstates of Germany.[1] Hamburg and Bremen are "Free andHanseatic Cities".
Generally, the city-states have no other rights or duties than the other states. Through the financial redistribution system ofEqualization Payments in Germany (German:Länderfinanzausgleich), they do receive more money because of their demographic characteristics. The city-states are most distinctive due to the names of their state organs: their governments are called Senate, the prime ministers 'mayor' (Governing Mayor inBerlin and First Mayor in Hamburg) or President of the Senate (in Bremen) and also the expressions for their state parliaments differ from the other states.
In the 18th century, many German cities werefree imperial cities (German:Reichsstädte), without a principalitybetween them and the imperial level. After the Napoleonic era, in 1815, four were still city-states: Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck in Northern Germany, and Frankfurt where theFederal Convention was located. Frankfurt was incorporated by Prussia in 1866, and Lübeck became a part of Prussia during the national socialist regime in 1937 (Greater Hamburg Law). After 1945, Berlin was a divided city, and the Western part became a German quasi-state under (Western) Allied supervision. Since 1990/1991, the reunited Berlin is an ordinary German state among others.
In Hungary, 23 of the cities are "cities with county rights". These cities have equal rights with the 19 counties of Hungary.Budapest, the capital city is also a special district, outside of the country's system of counties. Although Budapest does not belong toPest County which surrounds it, it is still the county headquarters.
Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford are governed by independent city councils.[5]
In Norway, Oslo is both a municipality (kommune) and a county (fylke) within itself.
Among Polish municipalities containing a town or a city, 638 are organized as a mixed urban-rural gmina (Polish:gmina miejsko-wiejska) consisting of a town and surrounding villages and countryside, governed by a common municipal government. The remaining 302 of them, however, are a standaloneurban gmina (Polish:gmina miejska) which contains solely either an independent town or one of the 107 cities (the latter governed by a city mayor orprezydent miasta).
Among the 107 cities, 66 of them constitute counties in their own right, formally calledcities with powiat rights. They are suitably marked on thelist of counties in Poland.
Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is outside the country's system ofcounties.
In the Russian Federation,Moscow andSaint Petersburg are bothsubjects of the federation and cities themselves. Russia also considers theCrimean city ofSevastopol to be afederal city of Russia, but this is not recognized by the majority of states who see the2014 Russian annexation of Crimea as unlawful.
In Spain, there exist two so-calledautonomous cities,Ceuta andMelilla, which are located on the North African coast surrounded by Morocco and have been under Spanish jurisdiction since the 15th century. Spain is a highly decentralized state organized inautonomous communities. These two cities hold their special status because they are not large enough to be considered regions on their own. Nonetheless, they function as autonomous communities with a high degree of self-administration and law-making powers.
Historically, until 1967,Stockholm did not belong to anycounty of Sweden. Instead, there was aGovernor of Stockholm that had the normal responsibilities of theCounty Administrative Boards and their managers, the governors. There was noCounty Council (which is elected by the people and is responsible for example for health care); instead, the City of Stockholm handled such tasks.
One of thecantons of Switzerland,Basel-Stadt, is considered to be a city-state, although it contains two smaller municipalitiesBettingen andRiehen alongside the city ofBasel itself.[6]
In Ukraine, the cities ofKyiv andSevastopol are part of the country constituent regions along with the autonomous republic ofCrimea (ARK), and 24 other oblasts (seeOblasts of Ukraine).
In the UK, having city status gives the city'slocal government no additional inherent powers;city status depends on a grant from themonarch and merely confers on the place so designated the right to call itself a city. Many cities and large urban areas areunitary authorities, meaning they have their own local government, separate from the surrounding county. (However, a number of large urban areas have a number of unitary authorities, such asGreater Manchester, which mean they do not have a unified, citywide local government.)County borough referred to aborough or a city, independent ofcounty council control in England and Wales from 1889 to 1974 with the term continuing in use in Northern Ireland. Wales re-introduced the term in 1994 for use with certain unitary authorities.
London, the capital of the United Kingdom and itsconstituent country England, is administrativelyGreater London, which consists of theCity of London and 32London boroughs. Greater London is not one of themetropolitan ornon-metropolitan counties, which the remainder of England is subdivided into. London has its ownassembly anddirectly elected mayor, which exercise local government/devolved powers greater than any other city or place in the UK, apart from the nations/provinces of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In the Canadian province ofOntario, independent cities are referred to as asingle-tier municipalities. In addition, there are alsoseparated municipalities.
InQuebec, they are often called separated cities, as they are not a part of their surroundingregional county municipality.
InAlberta, allmunicipalities (cities, towns, villages, andsummer villages) are separate from their surroundingcounty.
InSaskatchewan andManitoba, all cities, towns, villages, andresort villages are separate from their surroundingrural municipality; unincorporated communities, including local urban districts, remain part of the rural municipality they lie within.
InNew Brunswick, allcounty government was abolished in 1967.[7] Therefore, in theory, all cities, townships, and settlements in New Brunswick could be considered independent cities.
In Dominican Republic theNacional District, containing the city ofSanto Domingo de Guzman was created as a special district in 1922.
Previously, theFederal District was a separate entity from any of thestates of Mexico. However, on 30 January 2016, it became one of thestates of theUnited Mexican States, as well as the capital of the country, calling itselfMexico City.
There are 41 independent cities in the United States. Of these, 38 are inVirginia.[8] They are called 'independent' because they are not in the territory of anycounty or counties. Independent cities in Virginia may, however, serve as county seats for neighboring counties.
The three independent cities outside Virginia areBaltimore, Maryland;St. Louis, Missouri; andCarson City, Nevada.
New York City displays many features associated with independent cities but is, in fact, asui generis municipality that is coextensive with five counties. Counties invariably are administrative divisions of state government. In the case of New York City, however, they are also administrative divisions ofcity government. As city administrative divisions, the five counties are calledboroughs, retaining the label 'county' as state administrative divisions. For three out of the five boroughs, the borough and county have different names: the borough ofManhattan is the County of New York;Brooklyn is Kings County; andStaten Island is Richmond County. For the remaining two boroughs,Queens andthe Bronx, the county and borough share the same name. Each county elects their ownDistrict Attorney to prosecute crimes. Other than that, they have no administrative functions independent of the city government.
Another similar entity is aconsolidated city-county. An independent city is not even nominally part of any county, whereas for a consolidated city and county, the county at least nominally exists.[9] In some cases, such asIndianapolis, Indiana, the largest city in a county is consolidated with the county government while smaller communities continue to operate within the same county but separately from Indianapolis. In other cases, such as The City andCounty ofHonolulu, Hawaii, and The City and County of San Francisco, California, there is a complete consolidation of municipality and county. San Francisco, for example, has a chief executive called "Mayor", a term normally associated with city government, but the legislative body is called "Board of Supervisors", which is otherwise associated with county government in California.
Washington, D.C., meanwhile, effectively functions in varying ways as an independent city,consolidated city-county, and state all in one, although it has special Constitutional status as the "district constituting the seat of government of the United States," and is not part of a county or a state. In 1871, the cities of Washington andGeorgetown and theCounty of Washington were consolidated into a single local government.
TheBuenos Aires city was previously theFederal District of Argentina. In 1996, under the1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, the city gainedautonomous city status, and changed its formal name toAutonomous City of Buenos Aires, and held its first mayoral elections. Buenos Aires is represented in theArgentine Senate by three senators and in theArgentine Chamber of Deputies by 25 national deputies.
Brasília, the capital of Brazil, is set within theFederal District. The Federal District is a special unit of the federation, as it is not organized the same manner as a municipality, does not possess the same autonomy as a state (but is ranked among them) and is closely related to the central power. The District Governor is elected directly for a 4-year term. Local laws are issued by a legislative chamber also elected by the local population. Judiciary affairs are carried out by theUnion, instead of being appointed by the governor as in the otherstates of Brazil. The Federal District has the status of a federal state in many aspects. It has representatives both in theChamber of Deputies (lower house of congress) and in theFederal Senate (upper house of congress).
In Colombia theCapital District, containing the city ofBogotá was created as Special District in 1955 byGustavo Rojas Pinilla.
TheCapital District has the capital of Venezuela, Caracas.
Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, has been contained within theNational Capital District of Papua New Guinea since the country achieved independence in 1975.
