A commune ( es, comuna, ) is the smallest administrative subdivision in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It may contain

cities 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

as well as

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

areas. In highly populated areas, such as

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...

and Concepción, a conurbation may be broken into several communes. In sparsely populated areas, conversely, a commune may cover a substantial rural area together with several settled areas which could range from hamlets to towns or cities. The term "commune" is ambiguous in English, but the word is commonly used in translation for "comuna", although with some controversy among translators. A comuna is similar to a "county" in Anglo-American usage and practice, and may be more universally understood as a "municipality". Each commune or municipality is governed by a

directly elected Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are cho ...

body known as a municipal council (''concejo municipal'') consisting of a mayor (''alcalde'') and a group of councillors (''concejales''), for a period of four years. The communal civil service administration is known as the

municipality 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 ...

(''

municipalidad ''Municipalidad'' () is a Spanish term for municipality used in many Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru , the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. It refers to the governing body ...

'') and is headquartered at the mayor's office (''alcaldía''). According to Chilean law, a single municipality may administer one or more communes, though currently, the only such case is the municipality of

Cabo de Hornos Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

, which administers the communes of Antártica and

.Law 19,726
/ref> Chile's 346 communes are grouped into 56

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 ou ...

(''provincia'', pl. ''provincias''), which are themselves grouped into 16

regions 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 ...

(''región'', pl. ''regiones'').

List of communes by region and province

Traditionally, Chilean regions are listed in geographical order starting with the northernmost region, leaving the Santiago Metropolitan Region at the end. The following table lists all Chilean communes, providing a complete list of administrative divisions at all levels. Each commune's municipality website is given along with the area and population from the

National Statistics Institute National Institute of Statistics may refer to: *National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia *National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia *National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica *National Institute of Statistics and Census of Nica ...

's most recent census conducted in 2002.

References

External links

Municipalities in Chile
directory of official links for each municipality {{DEFAULTSORT:Communes Of Chile Subdivisions of Chile

Communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...

Communes, Chile

List of communes by region and province

See also

References

External links