Village


A village is a clustered 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. 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., Nógrád, Hungary 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. 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 defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed. Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.

South Asia

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the village, or deh is the mid-size settlement type in Afghan society, trumping the hamlet or qala, though smaller than the town, or shār. 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 M. K. Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2011 census of India, 68.84% of Indians 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 dehaat or gaaon in Urdu. Pakistani village life is marked by kinship and exchange relations.

Central Asia

Auyl is a Kazakh word meaning "village" in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan, 42.7% of Kazakhs live in 8172 different villages. To refer to this concept along with the word "auyl" often used the Slavic word "selo" in Northern Kazakhstan.

East Asia

People's Republic of China
In mainland China, villages :Zh:村 are divisions under township :Zh:乡 or town :Zh:镇.
Republic of China
In the Republic of China, villages are divisions under townships or county-controlled cities. The village is called a tsuen or cūn under a rural township and a li under an urban township or a county-controlled city. See also Li.
Japan
, Gifu, Japan
South Korea

Southeast Asia

Brunei

In Brunei, villages are officially the third- and lowest-level subdivisions of Brunei below districts and mukims. A village is locally known by the Malay word kampung. They may be villages in the traditional or anthropological sense but may also comprise delineated residential settlements, both rural and urban. The community of a village is headed by a village head. Communal infrastructure for the villagers may include a primary school, a religious school providing ugama or Islamic religious primary education which is compulsory for the Muslim pupils in the country, a mosque, and a community centre.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are called Kampung or Desa. A "Desa" is administered according to traditions and customary law, while a kelurahan is administered along more "modern" principles. Desa are generally located in rural areas while kelurahan are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively called kepala desa or lurah. Both are elected by the local community. A desa or kelurahan is the subdivision of a kecamatan, in turn the subdivision of a kabupaten or kota.
The same general concept applies all over Indonesia. However, there is some variation among the vast numbers of Austronesian ethnic groups. For instance, in Bali villages have been created by grouping traditional hamlets or banjar, which constitute the basis of Balinese social life. In the Minangkabau area in West Sumatra province, traditional villages are called nagari. In some areas such as Tanah Toraja, elders take turns watching over the village at a command post. As a general rule, desa and kelurahan are groupings of hamlets. a kampung is defined today as a village in Brunei and Indonesia.

Malaysia

Kampung is a term used in Malaysia, for "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country". In Malaysia, a kampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu, who has the power to hear civil matters in his village.
A Malay village typically contains a "masjid" or "surau", paddy fields and Malay houses on stilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens". They are family-oriented, courtesy and practice belief in God as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque. All Muslims in the Malay or Indonesian village want to be prayed for, and to receive Allah's blessings in the afterlife. In Sarawak and East Kalimantan, some villages are called 'long', primarily inhabited by the Orang Ulu.
Malaysian kampung were once aplenty in Singapore but there are almost no remaining kampung villages; the very few to have survived until today are mostly on outlying islands surrounding mainland Singapore, such as Pulau Ubin. Mainland Singapore used to have many kampung villages but modern developments and rapid urbanisation works have seen them bulldozed away; Kampong Lorong Buangkok is the last surviving village on the country's mainland.
The term "kampung", sometimes spelled "kampong", is one of many Malay words to have entered common usage in Malaysia and Singapore. Locally, the term is frequently used to refer to either one's hometown or a rural village, depending on the intended context.

Myanmar

Philippines

In urban areas of the Philippines, the term "village" most commonly refers to private subdivisions, especially gated communities. These villages emerged in the mid-20th century and were initially the domain of elite urban dwellers. Those are common in major cities in the country and their residents have a wide range of income levels.
Such villages may or may not correspond to a barangay, or be privately administered. Barangays correspond more to precolonial villages; the chairman now settles administrative, intrapersonal, and political matters or polices the area though with much less authority and respect than in Indonesia or Malaysia.

Thailand

Vietnam

Village, or "làng", is a basis of Vietnam society. Vietnam's village is the typical symbol of Asian agricultural production. Vietnam's village typically contains: a village gate, "lũy tre", "đình làng" where "thành hoàng" is worshiped, a common well, "đồng lúa", "chùa" and houses of all families in the village. All the people in Vietnam's villages usually have a blood relationship. They are farmers who grow rice and have the same traditional handicraft. Vietnam's villages have an important role in society. It is common for Vietnamese villagers to prefer to be buried in their village upon death.

Central and Eastern Europe

Slavic countries

Selo is a Slavic word meaning "village" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. For example, there are numerous sela called Novo Selo in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Another Slavic word for a village is ves. In Slovenia, the word selo is used for very small villages and in dialects; the Slovene word vas is used all over Slovenia. In Russia, the word ves is archaic, but remains in idioms and locality names, such as Vesyegonsk.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the different types of sela vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. According to a 2002 census, in that year there were 2,385,000 Bulgarian citizens living in settlements classified as villages. A 2004 Human Settlement Profile on Bulgaria conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that:
The most intensive is the migration "city – city". Approximately 46% of all migrated people have changed their residence from one city to another. The share of the migration processes "village – city" is significantly less – 23% and "city – village" – 20%. The migration "village – village" in 2002 is 11%.

It also stated that
the state of the environment in the small towns and villages is good apart from the low level of infrastructure.

In Bulgaria, it is becoming popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is called selski turizam, meaning "village tourism".

Russia

In Russia, as of the 2010 Census, 26.3% of the country's population lives in rural localities; down from 26.7% recorded in the 2002 Census. Multiple types of rural localities exist, but the two most common are derevnya and selo. Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city had a cathedral, a selo had a church, while a derevnya had neither.
The lowest administrative unit of the Russian Empire, a volost, or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, a selsoviet, was typically headquartered in a selo and embraced a few neighboring villages.
In the 1960s–1970s, the depopulation of the smaller villages was driven by the central planners' drive in order to get the farm workers out of smaller, "prospect-less" hamlets and into the collective or state farms' main villages or even larger towns and cities, with more amenities.
Most Russian rural residents are involved in agricultural work, and it is very common for villagers to produce their own food. As prosperous urbanites purchase village houses for their second homes, Russian villages sometimes are transformed into dacha settlements, used mostly for seasonal residence.
The historically Cossack regions of Southern Russia and parts of Ukraine, with their fertile soil and absence of serfdom, had a rather different pattern of settlement from central and northern Russia. While peasants of central Russia lived in a village around the lord's manor, a Cossack family often lived on its own farm, called khutor. A number of such khutors plus a central village made up the administrative unit with a center in a stanitsa. Such stanitsas often with a few thousand residents, were usually larger than a typical selo in central Russia.
The term aul/aal is used to refer mostly Muslim-populated villages in Caucasus and Idel-Ural, without regard to the number of residents.

Ukraine

In Ukraine, a village, known locally as a selo, is considered the lowest administrative unit. Villages may have an individual administration or a joint administration, combining two or more villages. Villages may also be under the jurisdiction of a city council or town council administration.
There is, however, another smaller type of settlement which is designated in Ukrainian as a selysche. This type of community is generally referred to in English as a "settlement". In comparison with an urban-type settlement, Ukrainian legislation does not have a concrete definition or a criterion to differentiate such settlements from villages. They represent a type of a small rural locality that might have once been a khutir, a fisherman's settlement, or a dacha. They are administered by a silrada located in a nearby adjacent village. Sometimes, the term "selysche" is also used in a more general way to refer to adjacent settlements near a bigger city including urban-type settlements or villages. However, ambiguity is often avoided in connection with urbanized settlements by referring to them using the three-letter abbreviation smt instead.
The khutir and stanytsia are not part of the administrative division any longer, primarily due to collectivization. Khutirs were very small rural localities consisting of just few housing units and were sort of individual farms. They became really popular during the Stolypin reform in the early 20th century. During the collectivization, however, residents of such settlements were usually declared to be kulaks and had all their property confiscated and distributed to others without any compensation. The stanitsa likewise has not survived as an administrative term. The stanitsa was a type of a collective community that could include one or more settlements such as villages, khutirs, and others. Today, stanitsa-type formations have only survived in Kuban where Ukrainians were resettled during the time of the Russian Empire.

Western and Southern Europe

France

A commune is considered as a village if it is not part of a ville. For the Insee, an urban unit has more than 2000 inhabitants living in buildings less than 200 metres from each others.
An independent association named Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, was created in 1982 to promote assets of small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage. As of 2008, 152 villages in France have been listed in "The Most Beautiful Villages of France".

Italy

In Italy, villages are spread throughout the country. No legal definition of village exists in Italian law; nonetheless, a settlement inhabited by less than 2000 people is usually described as "village". More often, Italian villages that are a part of a municipality are called frazione, whereas the village that hosts the municipal seat is called paese or capoluogo.

Spain

In Spain, a village refers to a small population unit, smaller than a town and a city, typically located in a rural environment. While commonly it is the smallest administrative unit, it is possible for a village to be legally composed of smaller population units in its territory. There is not a clear-cut distinction between villages, towns and cities in Spain, since they had been traditionally categorized according to their religious importance and their relationship with surrounding population units.

Portugal

Villages are more usual in the northern and central regions, Azores Islands and in the Alentejo. Most of them have a church and a "Casa do Povo", where the village's summer romarias or religious festivities are usually held. Summer is also when many villages are host to a range of folk festivals and fairs, taking advantage of the fact that many of the locals who reside abroad tend to come back to their native village for the holidays.

Netherlands

In the flood-prone districts of the Netherlands, particularly in the northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, villages were traditionally built on low man-made hills called terpen before the introduction of regional dyke-systems. In modern days, the term dorp is usually applied to settlements no larger than 20,000, though there's no official law regarding status of settlements in the Netherlands.

United Kingdom

A village in the UK is a compact settlement of houses, smaller in size than a town, and generally based on agriculture or, in some areas, mining, quarrying or sea fishing. They are very similar to those in Ireland.
, Wiltshire, England
The major factors in the type of settlement are: location of water sources, organisation of agriculture and landholding, and likelihood of flooding. For example, in areas such as the Lincolnshire Wolds, the villages are often found along the spring line halfway down the hillsides, and originate as spring line settlements, with the original open field systems around the village. In northern Scotland, most villages are planned to a grid pattern located on or close to major roads, whereas in areas such as the Forest of Arden, woodland clearances produced small hamlets around village greens. Because of the topography of the Clent Hills the north Worcestershire village of Clent is an example of a village with no centre but instead consists of series of hamlets scattered on and around the Hills.
Some villages have disappeared, sometimes leaving behind a church or manor house and sometimes nothing but bumps in the fields. Some show archaeological evidence of settlement at three or four different layers, each distinct from the previous one. Clearances may have been to accommodate sheep or game estates, or enclosure, or may have resulted from depopulation, such as after the Black Death or following a move of the inhabitants to more prosperous districts. Other villages have grown and merged and often form hubs within the general mass of suburbia—such as Hampstead, London and Didsbury in Manchester. Many villages are now predominantly dormitory locations and have suffered the loss of shops, churches and other facilities.
For many British people, the village represents an ideal of Great Britain. Seen as being far from the bustle of modern life, it is represented as quiet and harmonious, if a little inward-looking. This concept of an unspoilt Arcadia is present in many popular representations of the village such as the radio serial The Archers or the best kept village competitions.
, a village in the Cotswolds
Many villages in South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, North East Derbyshire, County Durham, South Wales and Northumberland are known as pit villages. These grew from hamlets when the sinking of a colliery in the early 20th century resulted in a rapid growth in their population and the colliery owners built new housing, shops, pubs and churches. Some pit villages outgrew nearby towns by area and population; for example, Rossington in South Yorkshire came to have over four times more people than the nearby town of Bawtry. Some pit villages grew to become towns; for example, Maltby in South Yorkshire grew from 600 people in the 19th century to over 17,000 in 2007. Maltby was constructed under the auspices of the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company and included ample open spaces and provision for gardens.
In the UK, the main historical distinction between a hamlet and a village was that the latter had a church, and so usually was the centre of worship for an ecclesiastical parish. However, some civil parishes may contain more than one village. The typical village had a pub or inn, shops, and a blacksmith. But many of these facilities are now gone, and many villages are dormitories for commuters. The population of such settlements ranges from a few hundred people to around five thousand. A village is distinguished from a town in that:

Lebanon

Like France, villages in Lebanon are usually located in remote mountainous areas. The majority of villages in Lebanon retain their Aramaic names or are derivative of the Aramaic names, and this is because Aramaic was still in use in Mount Lebanon up to the 18th century.
Many of the Lebanese villages are a part of districts, these districts are known as "kadaa" which includes the districts of Baabda, Aley, Matn, Keserwan, Chouf, Jbeil, Tripoli, Zgharta, Bsharri, Batroun, Koura, Miniyeh-Danniyeh, Zahle, Rashaya, Western Beqaa, Sidon, Jezzine, Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Marjeyoun, Hasbaya, Bint Jbeil, Baalbek, and Hermel.
The district of Danniyeh consists of thirty-six small villages, which includes Almrah, Kfirchlan, Kfirhbab, Hakel al Azimah, Siir, Bakhoun, Miryata, Assoun, Sfiiri, Kharnoub, Katteen, Kfirhabou, Zghartegrein, Ein Qibil.
Danniyeh is a region located in Miniyeh-Danniyeh District in the North Governorate of Lebanon. The region lies east of Tripoli, extends north as far as Akkar District, south to Bsharri District and Zgharta District and as far east as Baalbek and Hermel. Dinniyeh has an excellent ecological environment filled with woodlands, orchards and groves. Several villages are located in this mountainous area, the largest town being Sir Al Dinniyeh.
An example of a typical mountainous Lebanese village in Dannieh would be Hakel al Azimah which is a small village that belongs to the district of Danniyeh, situated between Bakhoun and Assoun's boundaries. It is in the centre of the valleys that lie between the Arbeen Mountains and the Khanzouh.

Syria

contains a large number of villages that vary in size and importance, including the ancient, historical and religious villages, such as Ma'loula, Sednaya, and Brad. The diversity of the Syrian environments creates significant differences between the Syrian villages in terms of the economic activity and the method of adoption. Villages in the south of Syria, the north-east and the Orontes River basin depend mostly on agriculture, mainly grain, vegetables, and fruits. Villages in the region of Damascus and Aleppo depend on trading. Some other villages, such as Marmarita depend heavily on tourist activity.
Mediterranean cities in Syria, such as Tartus and Latakia have similar types of villages. Mainly, villages were built in very good sites which had the fundamentals of the rural life, like water. An example of a Mediterranean Syrian village in Tartus would be al-Annazah, which is a small village that belongs to the area of al-Sauda. The area of al-Sauda is called a nahiya, which is a subdistrict.

Australasia and Oceania

Pacific Islands
Communities on Pacific islands were historically called villages by English speakers who traveled and settled in the area. Some communities such as several Villages of Guam continue to be called villages despite having large populations that can exceed 40,000 residents.
New Zealand
The traditional Māori village was the pā, a fortified hill-top settlement. Tree-fern logs and flax were the main building materials. As in Australia the term is now used mainly in respect of shopping or other planned areas.
Australia
The term village often is used in reference to small planned communities such as retirement communities or shopping districts, and tourist areas such as ski resorts. Small rural communities are usually known as townships. Larger settlements are known as towns.

South America

Argentina
Usually set in remote mountainous areas, some also cater to winter sports or tourism. See Uspallata, La Cumbrecita, Villa Traful and La Cumbre.
Guyana
In various areas villages can still be found in Guyana. While many are now towns, there are several areas on river banks, and communities off central roads that are still locally considered villages.

North America

In contrast to the Old World, the concept of village in today's North America north of Mexico is largely disconnected from its rural and communal origins. The situation is different in Mexico because of its large bulk of indigenous population living in traditional villages.

Canada

United States

Incorporated villages

In twenty U.S. states, the term "village" refers to a specific form of incorporated municipal government, similar to a city but with less authority and geographic scope. However, this is a generality; in many states, there are villages that are an order of magnitude larger than the smallest cities in the state. The distinction is not necessarily based on population, but on the relative powers granted to the different types of municipalities and correspondingly, different obligations to provide specific services to residents.
In some states such as New York and Michigan, a village is usually an incorporated municipality, within a single town or civil township. In some cases, the village may be with the town or township, in which case the two may have a consolidated government. There are also villages that span the boundaries of more than one town or township; some villages may straddle county borders.
There is no population limit to villages in New York. Hempstead, the largest village, has 55,000 residents; making it more populous than some of the state's cities. However; villages in the state may not exceed five square miles in area. Michigan and Illinois also have no set population limit for villages and there are many villages that are larger than cities in those states. The village of Arlington Heights, Illinois had 75,101 residents as of the 2010 census. A village also has no written figure against how small a population can be, with the United State's smallest incorporated village being Ames, NY, with a population of just over 100.
In Michigan, a village is always legally part of a township. Villages can incorporate land in multiple townships and even multiple counties. The largest village in the state is Beverly Hills in Southfield Township which had a population of 10,267 as of the 2010 census.
In the state of Wisconsin, a village is always legally separate from the towns that it has been incorporated from. The largest village is Menomonee Falls, which has over 32,000 residents.
In Ohio villages are often legally part of the township from which they were incorporated, although exceptions such as Hiram exist, in which the village is separate from the township. They have no area limitations, but become cities if they grow a population of more than 5,000.
In Maryland, a locality designated "Village of..." may be either an incorporated town or a special tax district. An example of the latter is the Village of Friendship Heights.
In North Carolina, the only difference between cities, towns, and villages is the term itself.

Unincorporated villages

In many states, the term "village" is used to refer to a relatively small unincorporated community, similar to a hamlet in New York state. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality, although such usage might be considered incorrect and confusing.
In states that have New England towns, a "village" is a center of population or trade, including the town center, in an otherwise sparsely developed town or city — for instance, the village of Hyannis in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts.

Africa

Nigeria

Villages in Nigeria vary significantly because of cultural and geographical differences.
Northern Nigeria
In the North, villages were under traditional rulers long before the Jihad of Shaikh Uthman Bin Fodio and after the Holy War. At that time Traditional rulers used to have absolute power in their administrative regions.
After Dan Fodio's Jihad in 1804, political structure of the North became Islamic where emirs were the political, administrative and spiritual leaders of their people. These emirs appointed a number of people to assist them in running the administration and that included villages.
Every Hausa village was reigned by Magaji who was answerable to his Hakimi at the town level. The Magaji also had his cabinet who assisted him in ruling his village efficiently, among whom was Mai-Unguwa.
With the creation of Native Authority in Nigerian provinces, the autocratic power of village heads along with all other traditional rulers was subdued hence they ruled 'under the guidance of colonial officials'.
Even though the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not recognised the functions of traditional rulers, they still command respect in their villages and political office holders liaise with them almost every time to reach people.
In Hausa language, village is called ƙauye and every local government area is made up of several small and large ƙauyuka. For instance, Girka is a village in Kaita town in Katsina state in Nigeria. They have mud houses with thatched roofing though, like in most of the villages in the North, zinc roofing is becoming a common sight.
Still in many villages in the North, people do not have access to portable water. So they fetch water from ponds and streams. Others are lucky to have wells within a walking distance. Women rush in the morning to fetch water in their clay pots from wells, boreholes and streams. However, government is now providing them with water bore holes.
Electricity and GSM network are reaching more and more villages in the North almost every day. So bad feeder roads may lead to remote villages with electricity and unstable GSM network.
Southern Nigeria
Village dwellers in the Southeastern region lived separately in "clusters of huts belonging to the patrilinage". As the rainforest region is dominated by Igbo speaking people, the villages are called ime obodo in Igbo language. A typical large village might have a few thousand persons who shared the same market, meeting place and beliefs.

South Africa

In South Africa the majority of people in rural areas reside in villages. They vary in size from having a population of less than 500 to around 1000.

Settlement types

;Developed environments