Unincorporated Area - Countries Without Unincorporated Places

Countries Without Unincorporated Places

Many countries, especially those with many centuries of history using multiple tiers of local government, do not use the concept of an unincorporated place.

• The whole of the territories of Austria, Belgium, Denmark. Finland, France (except for some small overseas possessions), Italy, Netherlands, Norway (though a handful of unincorporated cities exist within ordinary municipalities), Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland (with exceptions), Czech Republic and Slovakia (with the exception of the military areas, which are administered directly by state government) are divided into communes.

• In Brazil and Mexico, all land must belong to a municipality. Even large uninhabited areas, such as forests or grasslands, are by law part of the nearest "city". This is because in Latin America, a "municipality" is the equivalent of what in the United States and Canada is called a "County".

• In Croatia, every piece of land belongs either to a city (grad) or to a municipality (općina).

• In France, the territory is subdivided into 36,685 municipalities. An elected council and a mayor form the governing body of a municipality.

• In the Philippines, every piece of land belongs either to a city or lungsód or to a municipality or bayan.

• In South Africa the latest constitution gave every place in the country democratically elected third-tier government.

• The Spanish Constitution of 1978 says that the land is divided into Autonomous Communities, provinces and municipalities. Each of these have certain powers determined by law. Autonomous Communities and municipalities are enabled to appeal to the Constitutional Court any public decision which violates their autonomy by other entities (i.e. State or Autonomous Community power). Nevertheless, some regions, like Navarra, have some unincorporated areas. The largest of these, the Bardenas Reales has a surface of 418 km2 and is governed by a board of representatives of 20 bordering municipalities, a valley in the Pyrenees, and a monastery, all of which have rights to use the area.

• In Taiwan (Republic of China), every land belongs to either a Urban townships (鎮 zhèn/鄉 xiāng) or County-controlled cities (縣轄市 xiànxiáshì) in Counties (縣 xiàn), or Districts (區 qū) in cities (市 shì). There are totally 368 townships, County-controlled_cities, and Districts in Taiwan. See also Administrative divisions of the Republic of China.

• In Israel all land, except military areas, is subdivided into 393 municipalities which are further classified, normally by population, as City, Local Council, or Regional Council. All three types of municipality provides services including zoning and planning.