Village Breaks

What is the difference between a village, town, and city?

The place I live considers itself a village. It's not under populated or that highly populated. There are about 35,000 people here. What determines if it is a town, village, or city?

Public Comments

1. population...google it!
2. Population for each actually varries depending on where you are. Here is some information that might help.
   
   
   
   A hamlet is a small settlement, too small to be considered a village. The name comes from the diminutive of a Germanic word for an enclosed piece of land or pasture.
   
   
   
   
   
   A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet,
   
   
   
   A town is a community of people ranging from a few hundred to several thousands, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas. Usually, a "town" is thought of as larger than a village but smaller than a "city". The words "city" and "village" came into English from Latin via French. "Town" and "borough" (also "burrow", "burgh", "bury", etc.) are of native Germanic origin, from Old English burg, a fortified settlement, and tūn, an enclosed piece of land
   
   
   
   A city is an urban settlement with a particularly important status which differentiates it from a town.
   
   
   
   City is primarily used to designate an urban settlement with a large population. However, city may also indicate a special administrative, legal, or historical status.
   
   
   
   In the United States, "city" is primarily a legal term meaning an urban area with a degree of autonomy (i.e. a township), rather than meaning an entire large settlement (metropolitan area). Outside the United States, "city" implies an entire settlement or metropolitan area, although there are notable exceptions, e.g. the term City of London. In the UK, a city is a settlement with a charter ("letters patent") from the crown.
3. Certainly the size of population is a key indicator; but there are considerations such as legislation governing municipalities. In Britain, a town becomes a city when it contains a cathedral. A glaring example is Ely - a city of some 12,000 people,
4. Usually a village is a very small place, usually with only a few hundred people. A town is larger usually from 1000 to several thousand people. A city is usually a big metropolis. ALTHOUGH, this rule does not always stand true here in the USA.
5. Different countries define it differently, whether it is in population, size of area, etc. A village is smaller than a town which in turn is smaller than a city.