Municipalities of Puerto Rico
| Municipalities of Puerto Rico | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Category | Federal Unit |
| Location | Commonwealth of Puerto Rico |
| Number | 78 |
| Populations | 1,818 (Culebra) – 395,326 (San Juan) |
| Areas | 4.84 square miles (12.5 km2) (Cataño) – 125.95 square miles (326.2 km2) (Arecibo) |
| Government | Municipal government |
| Subdivisions | Barrio |
The municipalities of Puerto Rico number seventy-eight and they make up the smallest electoral division in Puerto Rico. Each municipality is led by a mayor and divided into barrios, though the latter are not vested with political authority. Geographically, a municipality has an urban core that consists of either a town or a city. Urban cores with a population of 50,000 or above are considered cities, while those under 50,000 inhabitants are termed towns.
Because Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony until 1898, its system of local government bears more resemblance to that of the Hispanophone nations of the Americas than to local government in the United States and some other Anglophone countries. Thus, there are no first-order administrative divisions akin to counties, as defined by the United States Government; instead, Puerto Rico has 78 municipalities or "municipios" as the secondary unit of administration. For U.S. Census purposes, the municipalities are considered "county-equivalents." The municipalities are grouped into eight electoral districts, but these do not possess administrative functions. In 1991, the Autonomous Municipalities Act was passed, which slightly modified the rights and responsibilities of Puerto Rican municipalities with the aim of decentralizing control and improving government services.
Every municipality is composed of several barrios, except for Florida which has only one barrio. The municipality of Ponce has the largest number of barrios, 31.
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Wikipedia