The term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. However in some systems, especially in the U.S., no town need be involved, and indeed in the Scottish Highlands the term describes a very small agricultural community. Specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semi-rural government within a county.
In England townships became obsolete long ago: the term referred to a subdivision used to administer a large parish. See Township (England)
In New Zealand the designation of "township" traditionally refers to a small town: a place that in Britain might qualify as a villageA village is a human settlement commonly found in rural areas. It is usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town or city. Villages have been the normal unit of community living in most areas of the world throughout its history, up until the Indus or a hamletIn geography, a hamlet is a small settlement. In British geography, a hamlet is defined ecclesiastically. It is a village that may or may not have its own church, but that does not form a parish in its own right. In the U. state of New York, hamlets are u.
In the Highlands and IslandsThe Highlands and Islands is one of the eight electoral areas for the Scottish Parliament through which 7 of the 56 Additional Members System MSPs are elected. It covers an area including all of the Highland, Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles local autho of ScotlandScotland or in Scottish Gaelic, Alba is a country and former independent kingdom of northwest Europe, and one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom. Scotland occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scotland took part in a ptownship means a traditional croftingIn Scotland a croft is a small parcel of agricultural land that is occupied and farmed by a crofter who pays rent to the landlord who owns the land. The rent is fixed by law, and is minimal. Crofts are situated in one of the former counties of Shetland, O township - that is, a group of agricultural smallholding s, each with its own few hectares of pasture and arable ground (in-bye land), but with a substantial tract of unimproved upland grazings held in common, which can range from a hundred to a few thousand hectares. Each Crofting Township comprises a formal legal unit.
In South AfricaSouth Africa is a republic at the southern tip of Africa. It is bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the north-east by Mozambique and Swaziland. Lesotho is contained entirely inside the borders of South Africa. South Africa is one o under ApartheidApartheid ap-ar-taed is an Afrikaans word meaning "separation" or literally "aparthood" (or "apartness"). It was the name of the policy and the system of laws implemented and enforced by "White" minority governments in South Africa from 1948 till 1990. the term township came to mean a residential development which confined non-whites (Africans, "coloureds" and Indians) who lived near or worked in white-only communities. SowetoSoweto is an urban area near Johannesburg, in Gauteng province South Africa. During the apartheid regime, Soweto was constructed for the specific purpose of housing African people who were then living in areas designated by the government for white settle ("SOuth-WEst TOwnships") furnishes a well-known example. See Township (South Africa)
In the United States, two kinds of township occur. A state may have neither, only one, or both of these. In states that have both, the boundaries usually coincide. See Township (United States)
In the context of Russia, the Soviet Union, and CIS states, the term is sometimes used to denote a small semi-urban, sometimes industrial, settlement and used to translate the terms поселок городского типа ( townlet), посад (posad), местечко (mestechko, from Polish "miasteczko", a small town).
