Municipalities of Croatia
Municipalities in Croatia (Croatian: općina; plural: općine) are the second-lowest administrative unit of government in the country, and along with cities and towns (grad, plural: gradovi) they form the second level of administrative subdisivion, after counties. Each municipality consists of one or more settlements (naselja) , which are the third-level spatial units of Croatia.
Though equal in powers and administrative bodies, municipalities and towns differ in that municipalities are usually more likely to consist of a collection of villages in rural or suburban areas, whereas towns are more likely to cover urbanised areas. Croatian law defines municipalities as local self-government units which are established, in an area where several inhabited settlements represent a natural, economic and social entity, related to one other by the common interests of the area's population.
As of 2023, the 21 counties of Croatia are subdivided into 128 towns and 428 municipalities, which in turn are subdivided into 6757 settlements.