Village
A village is a human settlement or a residential community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. File:Hollókő Ófalu Fő utca.jpg|thumb|The old village of Hollókő, Nógrád, Hungary In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practiced subsistence agriculture and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church. In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in larger numbers to work in mills and factories; the concentration of people caused many villages to grow into towns and cities. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts and the development of many trades. The trend of urbanization continues but not always in connection with industrialization. Historically, homes were situated together for sociability and defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed. Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.
In toponomastic terminology, the names of individual villages are called Comonyms.
Etymology
From Middle English village, from Old French village, from Latin villāticus, ultimately from Latin villa.Central and South Asia
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the village, or deh is the mid-size settlement type in Afghan society, trumping the United States hamlet or qala, though smaller than the town, or shār. In contrast to the qala, the deh is generally a bigger settlement which includes a commercial area, while the yet larger shār includes governmental buildings and services such as schools of higher education, basic health care, police stations etc.India
"The soul of India lives in its villages," declared Mahatma Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2011 census of India, 69% of Indians live in villages. Per the 2011 census of India, there were a total of 649,481 villages in India. The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Most of the villages have their own temple, mosque, or church, depending on the local religious following.Pakistan
The majority of Pakistanis live in rural areas. According to the 2017 census, about 64% of the Pakistani population lives in rural areas. Most rural areas in Pakistan tend to be near cities, and are peri-urban areas. This is due to the definition of a rural area in Pakistan being an area that does not fall within an urban boundary. A village is called deh or gaaon in Urdu. Pakistani village life is marked by kinship and exchange relations.File:Dosut, Neelum Valley cool beautiful evening.jpg|thumb|A village in Pakistani Kashmir's Neelum Valley "Dosut"
Kazakhstan
Auyl is a Kazakh word meaning "village" in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan, 42.7% of Kazakhstani citizens live in 8172 different villages. To refer to this concept along with the word "auyl" often used the Slavic word "selo" in Northern Kazakhstan.East Asia
China
In mainland China, villages are divisions under townships or towns.Taiwan
In the Republic of China, villages are divisions under townships or county-administered cities. The village is called a tsuen or cūn under a rural township and a li under an urban township or a county-controlled city. See also Li.Japan
South Korea
Southeast Asia
Brunei
In Brunei, villages are officially the third- and lowest-level subdivisions of Brunei below districts and mukims. A village is locally known by the Malay word kampung. They may be villages in the traditional or anthropological sense but may also comprise delineated residential settlements, both rural and urban. The community of a village is headed by a village head. Communal infrastructure for the villagers may include a primary school, a religious school providing ugama or Islamic religious primary education which is compulsory for the Muslim pupils in the country, a mosque, and a community centre.Indonesia
In Indonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are called kampung or desa. A desa is administered according to traditions and customary law, while a kelurahan is administered along more "modern" principles. Desa are generally located in rural areas while kelurahan are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively called kepala desa or lurah. Both are elected by the local community. A desa or kelurahan is the subdivision of a kecamatan, in turn the subdivision of a kabupaten or kota.The same general concept applies all over Indonesia. However, there is some variation among the vast numbers of Austronesian ethnic groups. For instance, in Bali villages have been created by grouping traditional hamlets or banjar, which constitute the basis of Balinese social life. In the Minangkabau area in West Sumatra province, traditional villages are called nagari. In some areas such as Tanah Toraja, elders take turns watching over the village at a command post. As a general rule, desa and kelurahan are groupings of hamlets. a kampung is defined today as a village in Brunei and Indonesia.
Malaysia and Singapore
Kampung is a term used in Malaysia, for "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country". In Malaysia, a kampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu, who has the power to hear civil matters in his village.A Malay village typically contains a mosque or surau, paddy fields and Malay houses on stilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens". They are family-oriented, courtesy and practice belief in God as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque. In Sarawak and East Kalimantan, some villages are called 'long', primarily inhabited by the Orang Ulu.
Malaysian kampung were once aplenty in Singapore but there are almost no remaining kampung villages; the very few to have survived until today are mostly on outlying islands surrounding mainland Singapore, such as Pulau Ubin. Mainland Singapore used to have many kampung villages but modern developments and rapid urbanisation works have seen them bulldozed away; Kampong Lorong Buangkok is the last surviving village on the country's mainland.
The term "kampung", sometimes spelled "kampong", is one of many Malay words to have entered common usage in Malaysia and Singapore. Locally, the term is frequently used to refer to either one's hometown or a rural village, depending on the intended context.
Myanmar
Philippines
In urban areas of the Philippines, the term "village" most commonly refers to private subdivisions, especially gated communities. These villages emerged in the mid-20th century and were initially the domain of elite urban dwellers. Those are common in major cities in the country and their residents have a wide range of income levels.Such villages may or may not correspond to a barangay, or be privately administered. Barangays correspond more to precolonial villages; the chairman now settles administrative, intrapersonal, and political matters or polices the area though with much less authority and respect than in Indonesia or Malaysia.
Thailand
Vietnam
Villages made up the basis of Vietnamese society. Vietnamese village is considered one of the typical symbol of Asian agricultural production. Villages in Vietnam typically contains: a village gate, bamboo hedges, a communal house where the tutelary deity is worshiped, a well shared by the whole village, paddy fields, temples and houses of all families in the village. Villagers share the same bloodline and are usually rice farmers, and may also share the same crafts. Village have an important role in Vietnamese society. It is common for Vietnamese villagers to prefer to be buried in their village upon death.Central and Eastern Europe
Slavic-speaking countries
Selo is a Slavic word meaning "village" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. For example, there are numerous sela called Novo Selo in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia.Another Slavic word for a village is ves. In Slovenia, the word selo is used for very small villages and in dialects; the Slovene word vas is used all over Slovenia. In Russia and Bulgaria, the word ves is archaic, but remains in idioms and locality names, such as Vesyegonsk and Belevehchevo.
The most commonly used word for village in Slovak is dedina. The word's etymology may be rooted in the verb dediť, referencing the inheriting of whole villages or properties within villages by noblemen or wealthy landowners. Another etymology could be related to the Sanskrit word deśá similar to the Afghan deh, Bengal desh and Indonesian desa. The term ves appears in settlement names. The dialect term for village in east Slovakia is also valal. Dedina is unrelated to the rarer east Slavic term derevna, which refers to a village with wooden housing.