A township is a kind of
human settlement or
administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an
urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canada,
Scotland and parts of the United States, the term refers to settlements too small or scattered to be considered urban.
Australia
''The Australian National Dictionary'' defines ''township'' as: "A site reserved for and laid out as a
town; such a site at an early stage of its occupation and development; a small town".
The term refers purely to the settlement; it does not refer to a unit of government. Townships are governed as part of a larger council (such as that of a
shire
Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...
,
district or
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 ...
) or authority.
Canada
In
Canada, two kinds of township occur in common use.
*In
Eastern Canada, a township is one form of the subdivision of a
county. In
Canadian French
Canadian French (french: français canadien) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes Varieties of French#Canada, multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Quebec French, Québécois (Quebec French). Formerly ''Can ...
, this is a . Townships are referred to as "lots" in
Prince Edward Island; they merely form
census subdivisions
The census geographic units of Canada are the Census division, census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct Census in Canada, the country's quinquennial census. These areas exi ...
and are not administrative units. In Canada, a municipality is a city, town, township, county, or
regional municipality
A regional municipality (or region) is a type of Municipal government in Canada, Canadian municipal government similar to and at the same municipality, municipal local government, government level as a county, although the specific structure an ...
which has been incorporated by
statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...
by the legislatures of the
provinces and territories
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
.
*In
Western Canada, townships exist only for the purpose of land division by the
Dominion Land Survey and do not form administrative units. These townships are nominally six miles by six miles (36 square miles, or roughly 93 km
2). Townships are designated by their township number and range number. Township 1 is the first north of the First Base Line, and the numbers increase to the north. While not an administrative unit,
Alberta and
Saskatchewan do have numbered
township and range roads in rural areas based on the old Dominion Land Survey. In
Saskatchewan and
Manitoba,
rural municipalities, township-like administrative units below the provincial level, are made up of groups of said surveyed townships.
China
In
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, townships are found at the fourth level of the
administrative hierarchy, below
counties,
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
and county level
cities; above
villages and communities, together with
ethnic townships,
towns and
subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district.
Equivalents
* Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language
* Kelurahan, in Indonesia
* Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...
s.
India
In
India, townships are found at the fourth level of the city.
Jersey
In
Jersey, a township is a redundant term, as the only surviving local government level at present are the 12
parishes
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
of the island.
Malaysia
In
Malaysia, townships are found at the third level of the
administrative hierarchy, is a
subdivision
Subdivision may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Subdivision (metre), in music
* ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009
* "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2)
* ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005
* "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...
of a ' (
district or
county) or autonomous sub-district ('), while above ' (
village) and (residential neighbourhood) as per Section 11(c) of the
National Land Code 1965.
New Zealand
In local government in
New Zealand, there are no longer towns or townships. All land is part of either a "
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 ...
" (mostly urban) or a "
district" (mostly rural). The term "municipality" has become rare in New Zealand since about 1979 and has no legal status.
The term "township" is, however, still in common usage in New Zealand, in reference to a small town or urban community located in a rural area. The expression would generally equate to that of "village" in England.
Pakistan
Philippines
In the
Philippines, "townships" referred to administrative divisions established during the
American Civil Government in the country. Many of these political divisions were originally established as
rancherias during the
Spanish Regime. The term was later replaced with "
municipal district".
Most municipal districts would later be converted into
regular municipalities by
executive orders from the Philippine president.
Currently,
Mambukal
Mambukal Resort, officially the Township of Mambukal or simply known as Mambukal (alternatively spelled as "Mambucal"), is a resort township located within the boundaries of the municipality of Murcia, Negros Occidental. As a township, it is dire ...
, a
hill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges ...
geographically located in
Murcia, Negros Occidental, is the only legally constituted township in the Philippines, created under Republic Act No. 1964, approved June 22, 1957.
In modern days, the term "township" in the Philippines refers to new developments with their own amenities both Vertical and Horizontal projects. The modern and largest townships in the Philippines are
New Clark City with 9,450 hectares in
Capas of
Tarlac, Hamilo Coast with 5,900 hectares in
Nasugbu
Nasugbu, officially the Municipality of Nasugbu ( tgl, Bayan ng Nasugbu), is a 1st class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a popul ...
of
Batangas, Nuvali with 2,290 hectares in
Santa Rosa of
Laguna
Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to:
People
* Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay
* Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist
* Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...
, Lancaster New City with 2,000 hectares in Kawit Imus GenTri of
Cavite, Vista City with 1,500 hectares in Las Piñas Muntinlupa of
Metro Manila and
Dasmariñas
Dasmariñas (colloquially shortened to Dasma), officially the City of Dasmariñas ( fil, Lungsod ng Dasmariñas), is a 1st class component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. With a land area of and a population of 703,141 people acc ...
of Cavite, Twin Lakes with 1,149 hectares in
Tagaytay of Cavite and Alviera with 1,125 hectares in
Porac of
Pampanga. Majority of the current townships are located near Metro Manila, allowing faster access to the capital region by road and/or rail transport.
Post-Soviet countries
In the context of
Russian Empire, the
Soviet Union, and
Commonwealth of Independent States states, the term is sometimes used to denote a small semi-urban, sometimes industrial, settlement and used to translate the terms ' (
townlet), ' ('), ' (''mestechko'', from Polish "", a small town; in the cases of predominant
Jewish population the latter is sometimes translated as
shtetl).
South Africa
In
South Africa, under
apartheid, the term ''township'' (or ''location''), in everyday usage, came to mean a residential development that confined non-whites (Blacks, Coloureds, and Indians) living near or working in white-only communities.
Soweto ("SOuth-WEstern TOwnships") and
Mdantsane are well-known examples. However, the term township also has a precise legal meaning and is used on land titles in all areas, not only traditionally non-white areas.
Taiwan
In
Taiwan, townships are administered by a
county, together with
county-administered city. There are three types of townships in Taiwan: urban townships, rural townships and mountain indigenous townships. Mountain indigenous townships are those with significant populations of
Taiwanese aborigines.
Thailand
United Kingdom
England
In England, the term township is no longer in official use, but the term still has some meaning.
In England, townships referred to subdivisions of large
parishes
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
for administrative purposes. This use became obsolete at the end of the 19th century, when local government reform converted many townships that had been subdivisions of ancient parishes into the newer
civil parishes in their own right. This formally separated the connection between the ecclesiastical functions of ancient parishes and the civil administrative functions that had been started in the 16th century. Recently, some councils, normally in the north of England, have revived the term.
Scotland
In Scotland, the term is still used for some rural settlements. In parts of the
Highlands and Islands, a
township is a
crofting settlement. In the Highlands generally the term may describe a very small
agrarian community
An agrarian society, or agricultural society, is any community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and Agricultural land, farmland. Another way to define an agrarian society is by seeing how much of a nation's total productio ...
.
Wales
For townships in Wales, which were created by an Act of Parliament in 1539 see:
Townships in Montgomeryshire.
United States
There are two types of townships in the
United States; a
state may have one or both types. In states that have both, the boundaries often coincide in many counties.
* A
civil township is a widely used unit of
local government in the
United States, subordinate to a
county. Specific responsibilities and the degree of
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
vary based on each
state. In many states, townships are organized and operate under the authority of state statutes, similar to counties. In others, townships operate as municipal corporations—chartered entities with a degree of home rule. There are exceptions, the most notable being
New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, where townships are a class of incorporation with fixed boundaries and equal standing to a village, town, borough, or city, analogous to a
New England town or
towns in New York.
* A
survey township
A survey township, sometimes called a Congressional township or just township, as used by the United States Public Land Survey System, is a nominally-square area of land that is nominally six U.S. survey miles (about 9.66 km) on a side. E ...
is a unit of land measure defined by the
Public Land Survey System, which in many states has no governmental function at all.
Puerto Rico
When after the Treaty of Paris, the U.S. did its first census of Puerto Rico the documents called them "barrios" as they had been called when Puerto Rico was under Spanish rule.
The townships or ''
barrios
Barrios is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Agustín Barrios (1885–1944), Paraguayan guitarist and composer
*Ángel Barrios (1882–1964), Spanish guitarist and composer
*Arturo Barrios (born 1962), Mexican athlet ...
'' as they are called in P.R. and on U.S. Census documents are subdivisions of
municipalities of Puerto Rico
The municipalities of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''municipios de Puerto Rico'') are the second-level administrative divisions in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. There are 78 such administrative divisions covering all 78 incorporated towns and cities ...
.
Vietnam
In
Vietnam, a
commune-level town (''thị trấn'') is very similar to a township; it is a subdivision of a rural district (''huyện'') and is the lowest administration subdivision in the country.
Zimbabwe
In
Zimbabwe, the term township was used for segregated parts of suburban areas. During colonial years in
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
, the term township referred to a residential area reserved for black citizens within the boundaries of a city or town and is still commonly used colloquially. This reflected the
South African __NOTOC__
South African may relate to:
* The nation of South Africa
* South African Airways
* South African English
* South African people
* Languages of South Africa
* Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...
usage.
In modern Zimbabwe, the term is also used to refer to a residential area within close proximity of a rural growth point.
See also
*
Croft (Scotland)
A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural area ...
*
Market town
*
Shtetl
*
Town
*
Townland
*
Urban-type settlement
References
External links
*
{{Terms for types of administrative territorial entities
Types of administrative division