Villages In Clay County, Illinois

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 a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church.Dr Greg Stevenson, "What is a Village?"
, ''Exploring British Villages'', BBC, 2006, accessed 20 October 2009 In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial 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 development of many trades. The trend of urbanization continues, though not always in connection with industrialization. Historically homes were situated together for sociability and defiance, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed. Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.

In toponomastic terminology, names of individual villages are called ''Comonyms'' (from Ancient Greek κώμη / village and ὄνυμα / name, f. ὄνομα.

South Asia

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the village, or ''deh'' (Dari/Pashto: ده) is the mid-size settlement type in Afghan society, trumping the hamlet or ''qala'' (Dari: قلعه, Pashto: کلي), though smaller than the town, or ''shār'' (Dari: شهر, Pashto: ښار). In contrast to the ''qala'', the ''deh'' is generally a bigger settlement which includes a commercial area, while the yet larger ''shār'' includes governmental buildings and services such as schools of higher education, basic health care, police stations etc.

India

''"The soul of India lives in its villages,"'' declared Mahatma Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2011 census of India, 69% of Indians (around 833 million people) live in 640,867 different villages. 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.

Pakistan

The majority of Pakistanis live in rural areas. According to the 2017 census about 64% of Pakistanis live in rural areas. Most rural areas in Pakistan tend to be near cities, and are peri-urban areas, This is due to the definition of a rural area in Pakistan being an area that does not come within an urban boundary. Village is called dehair or gaaon in Urdu