Avillage is ahuman settlement orcommunity, larger than ahamlet but smaller than atown[1][2][3][4] with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand.[citation needed] Although villages are often located inrural areas, the termurban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixeddwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as adispersed settlement.
In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practicesubsistence agriculture and also for some non-agricultural societies. InGreat Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built achurch.[5] In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. TheIndustrial Revolution attracted people in larger numbers to work in mills and factories; the concentration of people caused many villages to grow into towns and cities. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts and the development of many trades. The trend ofurbanization continues but not always in connection with industrialization. Historically, homes were situated together for sociability and defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed.Traditional fishing villages were based onartisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.
Intoponomastic terminology, the names of individual villages are calledComonyms (fromAncient Greek κώμη / village and ὄνυμα / name, [cf. ὄνομα]).[6]
In Afghanistan, the village, ordeh (Dari/Pashto: ده)[8] is the mid-size settlement type in Afghan society, trumping theUnited States hamlet orqala (Dari: قلعه,Pashto: کلي),[9] though smaller than the town, orshār (Dari: شهر,Pashto: ښار).[10] In contrast to theqala, thedeh is generally a bigger settlement which includes a commercial area, while the yet largershār includes governmental buildings and services such as schools of higher education, basic health care, police stations etc.
Mollösund, an example of a common village in Sweden and the Nordics.
A typical rural peasant Indian village inRajasthan, India
"The soul ofIndia lives in its villages," declaredMahatma Gandhi[11] at the beginning of 20th century. According to the2011 census of India, 69% of Indians (around 833million people) live in villages.[12] As per 2011 census of India, there are a total of 649,481 villages in India[13].The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Most of the villages have their own temple, mosque, or church, depending on the local religious following.
The majority ofPakistanis live in rural areas. According to the2017 census, about 64% of the Pakistani population lives in rural areas. Most rural areas inPakistan tend to be near cities, and areperi-urban areas. This is due to the definition of a rural area in Pakistan being an area that does not fall within anurban boundary.[14] A village is called deh or gaaon inUrdu.Pakistani village life is marked by kinship and exchange relations.[15]
Auyl (Kazakh:Ауыл) is a Kazakh word meaning "village" inKazakhstan.[16] According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan, 42.7% of Kazakhstani citizens (7.5 million people) live in 8172 different villages.[17] To refer to this concept along with the word "auyl" often used the Slavic word "selo" in Northern Kazakhstan.
InBrunei, villages are officially the third- and lowest-levelsubdivisions of Brunei belowdistricts andmukims.[18] A village is locally known by theMalay wordkampung (also spelt askampong).[18][19] They may be villages in the traditional or anthropological sense but may also comprise delineated residential settlements, both rural and urban. The community of a village is headed by avillage head (Malay:ketua kampung). Communal infrastructure for the villagers may include a primary school, a religious school providingugama or Islamic religious primary education which is compulsory for the Muslim pupils in the country,[20] a mosque, and acommunity centre (Malay:balai raya ordewan kemasyarakatan).
InIndonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are calledkampung ordesa (orkelurahan for those with urban functions). Adesa (a term that derives from aSanskrit word meaning "country" that is found in the name "Bangladesh"=bangla anddesh/desha) is administered according to traditions and customary law (adat), while akelurahan is administered along more "modern" principles.Desa are generally located in rural areas whilekelurahan are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively calledkepala desa orlurah. Both are elected by the local community. Adesa orkelurahan is the subdivision of akecamatan (district), in turn the subdivision of akabupaten (regency) orkota (city).
The same general concept applies all over Indonesia. However, there is some variation among the vast numbers of Austronesian ethnic groups. For instance, inBali villages have been created by grouping traditional hamlets orbanjar, which constitute the basis of Balinese social life. In theMinangkabau area inWest Sumatra province, traditional villages are callednagari (a term deriving from another Sanskrit word meaning "city", which can be found in the name like "Srinagar"=sri andnagar/nagari). In some areas such as Tanah Toraja, elders take turns watching over the village at a command post.[citation needed] As a general rule,desa andkelurahan are groupings of hamlets (kampung in Indonesian,dusun inJavanese,banjar in Bali). akampung is defined today as avillage inBrunei andIndonesia.
Kampung is a term used inMalaysia, (sometimes spellingkampong orkompong in theEnglish language) for "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country".[21] In Malaysia, akampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of apenghulu (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (seeCourts of Malaysia for more details).
A Malay village typically contains a"masjid" (mosque) or"surau",paddy fields andMalay houses onstilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens" (gotong royong).[22] They are family-oriented (especially the concept of respecting one's family [particularly the parents and elders]),courtesy and practice belief inGod ("Tuhan") as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque. InSarawak andEast Kalimantan, some villages are called 'long', primarily inhabited by theOrang Ulu.
Malaysiankampung were once aplenty in Singapore but there are almost no remainingkampung villages; the very few to have survived until today are mostly on outlyingislands surrounding mainland Singapore, such asPulau Ubin. Mainland Singapore used to have manykampung villages but modern developments and rapid urbanisation works have seen them bulldozed away;Kampong Lorong Buangkok is the last surviving village on the country's mainland.
The term "kampung", sometimes spelled "kampong", is one of many Malay words to have entered common usage in Malaysia and Singapore. Locally, the term is frequently used to refer to either one's hometown or a rural village, depending on the intended context.
In urban areas of thePhilippines, the term "village" most commonly refers to private subdivisions, especiallygated communities. These villages emerged in the mid-20th century and were initially the domain ofelite urban dwellers. Those are common inmajor cities in the country and their residents have a wide range of income levels.
Such villages may or may not correspond to abarangay (the country's basic unit of government, also glossed as village), or be privately administered. Barangays correspond more to precolonial villages; the chairman (formerly the villagedatu) now settles administrative, intrapersonal, and political matters or polices the area though with much less authority and respect than in Indonesia or Malaysia.
Village, or "làng", is a basis ofVietnam society. Vietnam's village is the typical symbol[citation needed] of Asian agricultural production. Vietnam's village typically contains: a village gate, "lũy tre" (bamboo hedges), "đình làng" (communal house) where "thành hoàng" (tutelary god) is worshiped, a common well, "đồng lúa" (rice field), "chùa" (temple) and houses of all families in the village. All the people in Vietnam's villages usually have a blood relationship. They arefarmers who grow rice and have the same traditionalhandicraft. Vietnam's villages have an important role in society (Vietnamese saying: "Custom rules the law" -"Phép vua thua lệ làng" [literally: the king's law yields to village customs]). It is common for Vietnamese villagers to prefer to be buried in their village upon death.[citation needed]
Another Slavic word for a village isves (Polish:wieś, wioska;Czech:ves, vesnice;Slovak:ves;Slovene:vas;Russian:весь,romanized: ves). InSlovenia, the wordselo is used for very small villages (fewer than 100 people) and in dialects; theSlovene wordvas is used all overSlovenia. InRussia andBulgaria, the wordves is archaic, but remains in idioms and locality names, such asVesyegonsk andBelevehchevo.
The most commonly used word for village in Slovak isdedina (dialectical alsodzedzina). The word's etymology may be (or may not be) rooted in the verbdediť ("to inherit"), referencing the inheriting of whole villages or properties within villages by noblemen or wealthy landowners. Another etymology could be related to the Sanskrit worddeśá (देश) similar to the Afghandeh, Bengaldesh and Indonesiandesa. The termves appears in settlement names (mostly villages, but also some towns that evolved over time from villages). The dialect term for village in east Slovakia is alsovalal (orvalala).Dedina is unrelated to the rarer east Slavic termderevna, which refers to a village with wooden (derevo) housing.
InBulgaria, the different types ofsela vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. According to a 2002 census, in that year there were 2,385,000 Bulgarian citizens living in settlements classified asvillages.[23] A 2004 Human Settlement Profile on Bulgaria[24] conducted by theUnited Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that:
The most intensive is the migration "city – city". Approximately 46% of all migrated people have changed their residence from one city to another. The share of the migration processes "village – city" is significantly less – 23% and "city – village" – 20%. The migration "village – village" in 2002 is 11%.[23]
It also stated that
the state of the environment in the small towns and villages is good apart from the low level of infrastructure.[23]
In Bulgaria, it is popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is calledselski turizam (Bulgarian:селски туризъм), meaning "village tourism".[25]
In Russia, as of the2010 Census, 26.3% of the country's population lives inrural localities;[26] down from 26.7% recorded in the2002 Census.[26] Multiple types of rural localities exist, but the two most common arederevnya (деревня) andselo (село). Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city (gorod,город) had acathedral, aselo had a church, while aderevnya had neither.
The lowest administrative unit of theRussian Empire, avolost, or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, aselsoviet, was typically headquartered in aselo and embraced a few neighboring villages.
In the 1960s–1970s, the depopulation of the smaller villages was driven by the central planners' drive in order to get the farm workers out of smaller, "prospectless" hamlets and into thecollective orstate farms' main villages or even largertowns andcities, with more amenities.[27]
Most Russian rural residents are involved in agricultural work, and it is very common for villagers to produce their own food. As prosperous urbanites purchase village houses for their second homes, Russian villages sometimes are transformed intodacha settlements, used mostly for seasonal residence.
The historicallyCossack regions of Southern Russia and parts ofUkraine, with theirfertile soil and absence ofserfdom, had a rather different pattern of settlement from central and northern Russia. While peasants of central Russia lived in a village around the lord's manor, a Cossack family often lived on its own farm, calledkhutor. A number of suchkhutors plus a central village made up the administrative unit with a center in astanitsa (Russian:станица,romanized: stanitsa;Ukrainian:станиця,romanized: stanytsya,lit. 'stanytsia'). Suchstanitsas, often with a few thousand residents, were usually larger than a typicalselo in central Russia.
InUkraine, a village, (Ukrainian:село,romanized: selo,IPA:[selo]), is considered the lowest administrative unit. Villages are under the jurisdiction of ahromada administration.
There is another smaller type of rural settlement which is designated in Ukrainian as aselyshche (селище). This type of community is often referred to in English as a "settlement". In the new law aboutpopulated places in Ukraine the term "selyshche", has a specific meaning. In the past the word "selyshche" was more ambiguous and there were distinction between ruralselyshche andselyshche miskoho typu (urban-type settlement), abbreviatedsmt in Ukrainian. There we alsodacha, fisherman, etc.selyshches
Thekhutir (хутір) andstanytsia (станиця) are not part of theadministrative division any longer, primarily due tocollectivization.Khutirs were very small rural localities consisting of just few housing units and were sort of individual farms. They became really popular during theStolypin reform in the early 20th century. During the collectivization, however, residents of such settlements were usually declared to bekulaks and had all their property confiscated and distributed to others (nationalized) without any compensation. Thestanitsa likewise has not survived as an administrative term. Thestanitsa was a type of a collective community that could include one or more settlements such as villages,khutirs, and others. Today,stanitsa-type formations have only survived inKuban (Russian Federation) where Ukrainians were resettled during the time of theRussian Empire.[original research?]
Ashtetl (pluralshtetlekh) was a small market town or village with a majority Jewish population in central and eastern Europe. The wordshtetl is Yiddish, derived from the wordshtot (town) with the suffix-l, adiminutive. Shtetlekh first began to appear in the 13th century, and were characteristic aspects of Jewish life in central and Eastern Europe until the 1940s. The shtetl occupies an important place in Jewish collective memory (particularly the history of Ashkenazi Jews) and has been depicted extensively in literature, visual art, theatre, and film, including such examples as the writing ofMendele Mocher Sforim,Isaac Bashevis Singer, andSholem Aleichem. Sholem Aleichem'sTevye the Dairyman stories, set in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka, were eventually adapted into theFiddler on the Roof stage play (which itself was later adapted for film).
During theHolocaust, most shtetlekh were depopulated of their Jewish communities through mass deportations or liquidations. Many are memorialized inyizkor books, written testimonies that describe the histories of Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust.
A commune in Group 3 or 4 is considered as a village (commune rurale).[29]
An independent association namedLes Plus Beaux Villages de France (affiliated to the international associationThe Most Beautiful Villages in the World), was created in 1982 to promote assets of small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage. As of July 2023, 172 villages in France have been listed in "The Most Beautiful Villages of France".[30]
In Germany aDorf (village) usually consists of at least a few houses but can have up to a few thousand inhabitants. Larger villages can also be referred to as aFlecken orMarkt depending on the region and the settlement's market rights. Smaller villages usually do not have their own government. Instead, they are part (Ortsteil) of the municipality of a nearby town.
In Italy, villages are spread throughout the country. No legal definition of village exists in Italian law; nonetheless, a settlement inhabited by less than 2000 people is usually described as "village". More often, Italian villages that are a part of amunicipality are calledfrazione, whereas the village that hosts the municipal seat is calledpaese (town) orcapoluogo.
A non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest[31] namedI Borghi più belli d'Italia (English:The most beautiful Villages of Italy) and affiliated to the international associationThe Most Beautiful Villages in the World, was created in 2001 on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities[32] with the aim of preserving and maintaining villages of quality heritage.[33] Founded to contribute to safeguarding, conserving and revitalizing small villages and municipalities, but sometimes even individual hamlets, which, being outside the main tourist circuits, they risk, despite their great value, being forgotten with consequent degradation, depopulation and abandonment.[34] Itsmotto isIl fascino dell'Italia nascosta ("The charm of hidden Italy").[35] As of November 2023, 361 villages in Italy have been listed in "The Most Beautiful Villages of Italy".[36]
The criteria for admission to the association meet the following requirements: integrity of the urban fabric, architectural harmony, livability of the village, artistic-historical quality of the public and private building heritage, services to the citizen as well as the payment of an annual membership fee.[37]
The association organizes initiatives within the villages, such as festivals, exhibitions,fetes, conferences and concerts that highlight the cultural, historical, gastronomic and linguistic heritage, involving residents, schools, and local artists.[38] The club promotes numerous initiatives on the international market.[39][40][41][42][43][44] In 2016, the association signed a global agreement withENIT,[45] to promote tourism in the most beautiful villages in the world.[46] In 2017, the club signed an agreement withCosta Cruises[47] for the enhancement of some villages, which are offered to cruise passengers arriving in Italian ports aboard the operator's ships.[48]
In Spain, a village (pueblo) refers to a small population unit, smaller than a town (villa [an archaic term that survives only in official uses, such as the official name of Spain's capital, "la Villa de Madrid"]) and a city (ciudad), typically located in a rural environment. While commonly it is the smallest administrative unit (municipio), it is possible for a village to be legally composed of smaller population units in its territory. There is not a clear-cut distinction between villages, towns and cities in Spain, since they had been traditionally categorized according to their religious importance and their relationship with surrounding population units.
Villages (aldeias, singular:aldeia) are more usual in thenorthern andcentral regions,Azores Islands and in theAlentejo. Most of them have a church and aCasa do Povo (people’s house), where the village's summerromarias or religious festivities are usually held. Summer is also when many villages are host to a range of folk festivals and fairs, taking advantage of the fact that many of the locals who reside abroad tend to come back to their native village for the holidays.
In the flood-prone districts of the Netherlands, particularly in the northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, villages were traditionally built on low man-made hills calledterpen before the introduction of regional dyke-systems. In modern days, the termdorp (lit. "village") is usually applied to settlements no larger than 20,000, though there's no official law regarding status of settlements in the Netherlands.
A village in the UK is a compact settlement of houses, smaller in size than a town, and generally based on agriculture or, in some areas, mining (such asOuston, County Durham), quarrying or sea fishing. They are very similar to those in Ireland.
The major factors in the type of settlement are: location of water sources, organization of agriculture and landholding, and likelihood of flooding. For example, in areas such as theLincolnshire Wolds, the villages are often found along thespring line halfway down the hillsides, and originate asspring line settlements, with the originalopen field systems around the village. In northernScotland, most villages are planned to agrid pattern located on or close to major roads, whereas in areas such as theForest of Arden, woodland clearances produced small hamlets around village greens.[49][50] Because of the topography of theClent Hills the northWorcestershire village ofClent is an example of a village with no centre but instead consists of series of hamlets scattered on and around the Hills.
Some villages have disappeared (for example,deserted medieval villages), sometimes leaving behind a church ormanor house and sometimes nothing butbumps in the fields. Some show archaeological evidence of settlement at three or four different layers, each distinct from the previous one. Clearances may have been to accommodatesheep or game estates, orenclosure, or may have resulted from depopulation, such as after theBlack Death or following a move of the inhabitants to more prosperous districts. Other villages have grown and merged and often form hubs within the general mass of suburbia—such asHampstead, London andDidsbury inManchester. Many villages are now predominantlydormitory locations and have suffered the loss of shops, churches and other facilities.
For many British people, the village represents anideal of Great Britain. Seen as being far from the bustle of modern life, it is represented as quiet and harmonious, if a little inward-looking. This concept of an unspoiltArcadia is present in many popular representations of the village such as the radio serialThe Archers or thebest kept village competitions.[51]
In the UK, the main historical distinction between ahamlet and a village was that the latter had achurch,[5] and so usually was the centre of worship for anecclesiastical parish. However, somecivil parishes may contain more than one village. The typical village had a pub or inn, shops, and ablacksmith. But many of these facilities are now gone, and many villages are dormitories for commuters. The population of such settlements ranges from a few hundred people to around five thousand. A village is distinguished from a town in that:
A village should not have a regular agriculturalmarket, although today such markets are uncommon even in settlements which clearly are towns.
If a village is the principal settlement of acivil parish, then any administrative body that administers it at parish level should be called aparish council orparish meeting, and not atown council orcity council. However, some civil parishes have no functioning parish, town, or city council nor a functioning parish meeting. In Wales, where the equivalent of an English civil parish is called aCommunity, the body that administers it is called aCommunity Council. However, larger councils may elect to call themselves town councils.[55] In Scotland, the equivalent is also a community council, however, despite being statutory bodies they have no executive powers.[56]
There should be a cleargreen belt or open fields, as, for example, seen on aerial maps forOuston surrounding its parish[57] borders. However this may not be applicable to urbanised villages: although these may not be considered to be villages, they are often widely referred to as being so; an example of this isHorsforth inLeeds.
Like France, villages inLebanon are usually located in remote mountainous areas. The majority of villages in Lebanon retain theirAramaic names or are derivative of the Aramaic names, and this is because Aramaic was still in use inMount Lebanon up to the 18th century.[58]
Many of the Lebanese villages are a part of districts, these districts are known as "kadaa" which includes the districts of Baabda (Baabda), Aley (Aley), Matn (Jdeideh), Keserwan (Jounieh), Chouf (Beiteddine), Jbeil (Byblos), Tripoli (Tripoli), Zgharta (Zgharta / Ehden), Bsharri (Bsharri), Batroun (Batroun), Koura (Amioun), Miniyeh-Danniyeh (Minyeh / Sir Ed-Danniyeh), Zahle (Zahle), Rashaya (Rashaya), Western Beqaa (Jebjennine / Saghbine), Sidon (Sidon), Jezzine (Jezzine), Tyre (Tyre), Nabatiyeh (Nabatiyeh), Marjeyoun (Marjeyoun), Hasbaya (Hasbaya), Bint Jbeil (Bint Jbeil), Baalbek (Baalbek), and Hermel (Hermel).
The district of Danniyeh consists of thirty-six small villages, which includes Almrah, Kfirchlan, Kfirhbab, Hakel al Azimah, Siir, Bakhoun, Miryata, Assoun, Sfiiri, Kharnoub, Katteen, Kfirhabou, Zghartegrein, Ein Qibil.
Danniyeh (known also as Addinniyeh, Al Dinniyeh, Al Danniyeh, Arabic: سير الضنية) is a region located in Miniyeh-Danniyeh District in the North Governorate of Lebanon. The region lies east of Tripoli, extends north as far as Akkar District, south to Bsharri District and Zgharta District and as far east as Baalbek and Hermel. Dinniyeh has an excellent ecological environment filled with woodlands, orchards and groves. Several villages are located in this mountainous area, the largest town being Sir Al Dinniyeh.
An example of a typical mountainous Lebanese village in Dannieh would be Hakel al Azimah which is a small village that belongs to the district of Danniyeh, situated between Bakhoun and Assoun's boundaries. It is in the centre of the valleys that lie between theArbeen Mountains and theKhanzouh.
Syria contains a large number of villages that vary in size and importance, including the ancient, historical and religious villages, such asMa'loula,Sednaya, andBrad (Mar Maroun's time). The diversity of the Syrian environments creates significant differences between the Syrian villages in terms of the economic activity and the method of adoption. Villages in the south of Syria (Hauran,Jabal al-Druze), the north-east (the Syrian island) and theOrontes River basin depend mostly on agriculture, mainly grain, vegetables, and fruits. Villages in the region ofDamascus andAleppo depend on trading. Some other villages, such asMarmarita depend heavily on tourist activity.
Mediterranean cities inSyria, such asTartus andLatakia have similar types of villages. Mainly, villages were built in very good sites which had the fundamentals of the rural life, like water. An example of a Mediterranean Syrian village in Tartus would beal-Annazah, which is a small village that belongs to the area ofal-Sauda. The area of al-Sauda is called anahiya.
Pacific IslandsCommunities on Pacific islands were historically called villages by English speakers who traveled and settled in the area. Some communities such as severalVillages of Guam continue to be called villages despite having large populations that can exceed 40,000 residents.
New ZealandThe traditionalMāori village was thepā, a fortified hill-top settlement. Tree-fern logs and flax were the mainbuilding materials. As inAustralia (see below) the term is now used mainly in respect of shopping or other planned areas.
AustraliaThe term village often is used in reference to small planned communities such asretirement communities or shopping districts, and tourist areas such asski resorts. Small rural communities are usually known as townships. Larger settlements are known as towns.
GuyanaIn various areas villages can still be found in Guyana. While many are now towns, there are several areas on river banks, and communities off central roads that are still locally considered villages.
UruguayVillage or "villa" is one of the three levels at which the government classifies urbanizations or "localidades", a "villa" is highest rank than a "pueblo" which is the lowest unit and lower than a city or "ciudad", which is the highest rank. This organization is more related with notability than size, since there is no official criteria to determine the level of urbanization. Every urbanization is a "pueblo" unless is elevated by decree to the next category. Historically this was a faculty of the executive power but more recently this faculty was transferred to the legislative. However colloquial speech still refers as "pueblo" to most "villas" and even cities and many names preceded by the word "villa" could represent other standard, such as "Villa del Cerro" or "Villa Serrana".
In contrast to the Old World, the concept of village in Canada and the United States today is largely disconnected from its rural and communal origins. The situation is different in Mexico because of its large bulk of indigenous population living in traditional villages.
It is believed that the name Canada may be a transliteration of the Iroquoisan word for "village". Jacques Cartier was given directions to the Kanata of Kebec and it became the name of the French Colonial district before it was the nation's name.[59]
In twentyU.S. states, the term "village" refers to a specific form of incorporatedmunicipal government, similar to a city but with less authority and geographic scope. However, this is a generality; in many states, there are villages that are an order of magnitude larger than the smallest cities in the state. The distinction is not necessarily based on population, but on the relative powers granted to the different types of municipalities and correspondingly, different obligations to provide specific services to residents.
In some states such as New York and Michigan, a village is an incorporated municipality, within a single town orcivil township. In some cases, the village may becoterminous with the town or township, in which case the two may have aconsolidated government. There are also villages that span the boundaries of more than one town or township; some villages may straddle county borders.
There is no population limit to villages in New York.Hempstead, the largest village, has 55,000 residents, making it more populous than some of the state's cities. However, villages in the state may not exceed five square miles (13 km2) in area. Michigan and Illinois also have no set population limit for villages and there are many villages that are larger than cities in those states. The village ofSchaumburg, Illinois had 78,723 residents as of the 2020 census. A village also has no written figure against how small a population can be, with the United States' smallest incorporated village beingDering Harbor, NY, with a population of just over 10.
InMichigan, a village is always legally part of atownship. Villages can incorporate land in multiple townships and even multiple counties. The largest village in the state isBeverly Hills inSouthfield Township which had a population of 10,267 people as of the 2010 census.
In the state ofWisconsin, a village is always legally separate from thetowns that it has been incorporated from. The largest village isMenomonee Falls, which has over 32,000 residents. InPennsylvania law, the termborough is used to refer to the same type of entity. 80% of Pennsylvania's 956 boroughs have populations of less than 5,000 but about thirty have populations of over 10,000 withState College having more than 40,000 residents.
InOhio villages are usually legally part of thetownship from which they were incorporated, although exceptions such asHiram exist, in which the village is separate from the township.[60] Villages become cities if they grow to a population of at least 5,000.[61]
Oracle, Arizona is an unincorporated rural town often called a village in local media
In many states, the term "village" is used to refer to a relatively smallunincorporated community, similar to ahamlet in New York state. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality, although such usage might be considered incorrect and confusing.
Villages inNigeria vary significantly because of cultural and geographical differences.
Northern Nigeria
In theNorth, villages were undertraditional rulers long before theJihad ofShaikh Uthman Bin Fodio and after the Holy War. At that timeTraditional rulers used to haveabsolute power in their administrative regions.After Dan Fodio's Jihad in 1804,[64] political structure of the North became Islamic whereemirs were the political, administrative and spiritual leaders of their people. These emirs appointed a number of people to assist them in running the administration and that included villages.[65]
Every Hausa village was reigned by Magaji (Village head) who was answerable to his Hakimi (mayor) at the town level. The Magaji also had his cabinet who assisted him in ruling his village efficiently, among whom was Mai-Unguwa (Ward Head).[66]
With the creation of Native Authority in Nigerian provinces, the autocratic power of village heads along with all other traditional rulers was subdued hence they ruled 'under the guidance of colonial officials'.[67]
Even though the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not recognised the functions of traditional rulers, they still command respect in their villages[67] and political office holders liaise with them almost every time to reach people.
In Hausa language, village is calledƙauye and every local government area is made up of several small and largeƙauyuka (villages). For instance,Girka is a village inKaita town in Katsina state in Nigeria. They have mud houses with thatched roofing though, like in most of the villages in the North, zinc roofing has become a common sight.
Still in many villages in the North, people do not have access to potable water.[68] So they fetch water from ponds and streams. Others are lucky to have wells within a walking distance. Women rush in the morning to fetch water in their clay pots from wells, boreholes and streams. However, the government is now providing them with water bore holes.[69]
Electricity and GSM network are reaching more and more villages in the North almost every day. So bad feeder roads may lead to remote villages with electricity and unstable GSM network.[70]
Southern Nigeria
A village house in Southern Nigeria
Village dwellers in the Southeastern region lived separately in "clusters of huts belonging to the patrilinage".[71] As the rainforest region is dominated byIgbo speaking people, the villages are calledime obodo (inside town) in Igbo language. A typical large village might have a few thousand persons who shared the same market, meeting place and beliefs.
^Mughal, M. A. Z. (2018). "Exchange Relations and Social Change in Rural Pakistan: Rituals and Ceremonies of Childbirth, Marriage and Death".South Asia Research.38 (2):177–194.doi:10.1177/0262728018768137.S2CID149640822.
^Қазақ тілі термиңдерінің салалық ғылыми түсіндірме сөздігі: География және геодезия. — Алматы: "Мектеп" баспасы, 2007. — 264 бет.ISBN9965-36-367-6
^Geertz, Clifford. "Local Knowledge: Fact and Law in Comparative Perspective", pp. 167–234 in GeertzLocal Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology, NY: Basic Books. 1983.
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