The municipalities of the Dominican Republic are, after the

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

, the second level of the political and

administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. The division of provinces into

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

('' municipios'') 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 (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

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

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

(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''), 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 Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

'' (

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, 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 responsibilitie ...

), 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, borough cou ...

(''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 Urban Center may refer to: * Urban center, human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment * Urban Center Plaza, plaza on the Portland State University campus in Portland, Oregon, United States * Urban Cen ...

, 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 a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

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

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

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

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

) in the case of villages.

Municipalities

The following is a list of the 158 municipalities ('' municipios'') of the Dominican Republic as of June 1, 2021.

Provincial maps with their municipalities

Bibliography

''Constitución de la República Dominicana.''
June 13, 2015. World Intellectual Property Organization (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 municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...