The municipalities of the Dominican Republic are, after the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

s and the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, the third level of the political and

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. The division of provinces into

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

(''

municipio ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or t ...

s'') is established in the Constitution and further regulated by Law 5220 on the Territorial Division of the Dominican Republic. It was enacted in 1959 and has been frequently amended to create new provinces, municipalities and lower-level administrative units. Municipalities may be further divided into ''secciones'' (literally: sections) and ''parajes'' (literally: places or

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

s). Municipal districts (''distritos municipales'') may be formed in the case of municipalities with several urban centres. Law 176-07 replaced ''Law Nº 3455 de Organización Municipal'' from January, 29, 1953; that had long served as the basis for municipal administration, see The provinces as the second level of political and administrative division contain at least two municipalities. The

Distrito Nacional The Distrito Nacional (; D.N.) is a subdivision of the Dominican Republic enclosing the capital Santo Domingo. It is not in any of the Provinces of the Dominican Republic, provinces, but in practice, it acts as a province on its own. Before Octobe ...

, which is neither a municipality nor a province, consists of only one municipality,

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

(Constitution: "the city of Santo Domingo de Guzmán is the Distrito Nacional").

Administration

According to the Constitution and the law, the municipalities are administered by the municipality's Municipal Office (''

ayuntamiento ''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain: * ca, ajuntament (). * gl, concello (). * eu, udaletxea (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin Amer ...

''), which is a legal entity in its own right consisting of two bodies: the ''alcadía'' (Mayor's Office), with the ''

alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) a ...

'' (

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

), and the

Municipal Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

(''concejo de regidores''), with at least five members (''regidores''). The Municipal Council is an exclusively normative, regulatory and supervisory body, the Mayor's Office the executive one. The mayor is a voting member of the Municipal Council. He and his deputy, as well as the ''regidores'' and their deputies, are elected by the electorate on the occasion of elections held nationally every four years. If a municipality consists of more than one

urban center An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, ...

, the additional centres may be elevated to the status of municipal district (''distrito municipal''), with the remaining district of the municipality called ''cabecera'' (main municipality). The administration of the municipal district is the responsibility of a municipal district office (''junta municipal''), which includes the director (''director'') and a municipal district council (''junta de vocales'') with at least three members (''vocales''). The director and his deputy, as well as the ''vocales'' and their deputies, are elected by the electorate on the occasion of elections held nationally every four years. They represent the municipal district to the municipality and are subordinate to it. If a municipality is further divided into ''secciones'', the municipal council appoints an ''alcalde pedáneo'' for each of them. He reports to the mayor or, if his ''sección'' is in a municipal district, to its ''director''. If the municipality is further divided into ''parajes'', the municipal council appoints an ''ayudante del alcalde pedáneo'' for each of them. Municipalities are often given special designations because of their number of inhabitants: ''ciudad'' (

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

) in the case of urban centers with over 10,000 inhabitants or the capital of a province, ''villas'' (

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

) in the case of towns with over 1,000 inhabitants or seats of a local government, ''poblados'' (

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

) in the case of villages.

Municipalities

The following is a list of the 158 municipalities (''

municipios ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or ...

'') of the Dominican Republic as of June 1, 2021.

Provincial maps with their municipalities

Dominican Republic municipalities (2014)

Bibliography

''Constitución de la República Dominicana.''
June 13, 2015.

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, 15 specialized agencies of the United Nation ...

(WIPO).
''Ley Nº 176-07 del Distrito Nacional y los Municipios.''
Congreso Nacional, July 20, 2007.

References

External links

*
Federación Dominicana de Municipios (FEDOMU), Dominican federation of municipalities
*
Oficina Nacional de Estadística (ONE), Statistics Portal of the Dominican Republic
{{Dominican Republic topics

Subdivisions of the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic 2 Municipalities, Dominican Republic

Municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...