What do Americans mean when they say "Village"?

"Perhaps this confusion stems from that there are no villages in the USA,"

Interesting question and discussion base, Carlos. To me there are no villages in the US...well, maybe in the NE USA?? My adult life has been spent in Florida and Idaho and nope, even if something is made up and called a "Village" for marketing purposes (thinking of FL here, lol) there are not what I would think of as villages. I've not lived in the NE but I picture calendar shots of Autumn leaves and white churches which might or might not be a village.

Certainly there are no villages in Idaho. Only small towns and smaller towns and maybe a wide spot in the road with a few houses. No charming "village-y" feel because there are usually loaded log trucks rumbling thru, haha, but gorgeous scenery, lol.

To me "village" brings to mind a charming setting, with an imaginary group of townsfolks who love and support each other, maybe with one or two "meanies". In my mind I see a slower lifestyle with enjoyment of day to day activities. To me it's also a fantasy, enjoyed in books but rarely replicated in real life. See Trisha Ashley novels with villages in Lancashire and Yorkshire, lol.

It will be interesting to read others' replies!

Carlos, I think the answers are "yes" to all of your questions/potential answers.

Small, quaint, charming, older comes to my mind.

To add to the confusion, at bit, in the US, it is not unusual for there to be "village" areas within larger cities.....granted, those would be technically "urban villages." But, typically they are charming and historic (not always) to a large degree.

I think most Americans will agree that it would be a place to which they could "escape" for charm, an old-world (or at least in the case of the US, oldER) charm) feel than what they are used to in one's daily environment/life.

A village is “ a group of houses and associated buildings larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town…”
Now, villages can be “a self-contained district or community within a town or city regarded as having features characteristic of village life.”
Oddly, there are no population numbers defining the differences between hamlets, villages and towns.
I live in “ Carlsbad Village” in San Diego County.
The village is also called “Old Town” because it was the original core of what started in the 1880’s as just a whistle stop with a train station ( that is still here) and grew into a suburb with a population today of 114,000. The “village” is the original area of about 1 square mile and has “city” hall, grocers, gas stations,hardware store, barbers, salons, bars, restaurants, the main library, doctors, lawyers, auto repair shops— almost everything you need. Except there’s no book store!

Like Pam I think for most Americans "village" is a state of mind meaning slower pace of life, quaint and charming independent shops, historic or at least interesting architecture. The "village" pub would serve "authentic" food, there wouldn't be a TV and everyone would know your name after 30 minutes.

Add cultural and geographic variations to mix and you find that there isn't any typical American to answer this question........
It is all about what you are used to and what you think it "big" or "small". Like Pam, I lived in Idaho before and even the smallest locations (the ones with the population signs that say 12 people, 4 horses, 6 dogs and 5 cats) were called towns. To me these are small towns. Small cities start at about 2,000-3,000. Someone who lives in a large metropolitan area is going to view big and small differently.

I would say it’s a euphemism. I lived in the Village of Wellington and the population is over 61,000 and an area over 45 sq. miles (116 sq. km). I live in community called Hobe Sound which is part of unincorporated Martin County. Population is 13,000 in an area of 7.7 sq. miles. South of us is the Town of Jupiter - 61,000 in 23 sq. miles. Then there are the two “Fantasy Island” communities the Town of Palm Beach and Town of Jupiter Island with, perhaps, some of the most expensive real estate in the US. I could not find any uniform definitions or legal descriptions differentiating what a place should be named. So, call it what you will! I call it “home.”

Blame it on the media. Here is a post on Spain's White 'Villages' https://www.saltinourhair.com/spain/white-villages-andalusia/
North America certainly has villages and hamlets. I have driven through dozens (numerous moves across Canada).

There are many villages, of exactly the European sort (a usually rural small town with a population up to several thousand), in the United States. As previously noted, they tend to be in the northeast which was politically organized that way in colonial times. For example, in upstate New York where I'm from, the village of Hamilton is a small college town, the village being governmentally different from the township of Hamilton which is a somewhat larger rural area, which along with a number of other townships and villages makes up Madison County, which is one of dozens of counties of New York State.

Quite a few states have incorporated "villages". Wisconsin gets fairly confusing with one particular town and one particular village having the same name.

Button the point, I have always wondered if the terms town and village when used by Americans, myself included, wasn't a but unintentionally condescending. We have a tendency to say _______ is a beautiful town but we wouldn't for a second call a similar sized city in the US a town, even informally. Or I am being to introspective (cause I do it a lot)?

I'm a literal-minded person, and to me a village is a small place, not necessarily old or picturesque. Exactly how small, I do not know. I'm aware that I've used the term carelessly here. On a few occasions when someone was looking for a "village" for a longer-term stay, I asked what sort of population they were thinking of, to avoid wasting time with out-of-scope suggestions. I believe I only got a response one time.

I'm not American, but I guess that, to me, a village would be walkable and would have no malls or traffic lights. Fast food chains and big box stores might be in towns, but they wouldn't be in villages.

That's entirely my own sense of it, based on no official sources whatsoever, so ymmv. ;)

I have to think that there are some Americans, likely those who have not been to Europe, who believe there are substantial number of places that still look like the scenes in Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. And that they have AirBnB's in them with air conditioning and coffee pod machines, and Egyptian Cotton Sheets.

I guess there are such places still in Southern Europe, but very few in Northern Europe. Even in the absolutely historical places (like Monemvasia, Pérouges, Bruges, Monschau, old-town, Obidos ... and soon, Venice - there are no "residents" to speak of. Only the tourist site (and a place for Ph.D students to research.) There are still places in that general category that I've been to (Český Krumlov, old-town Gross Umstadt, ...) where I did get the feeling that actual residents existed, although they generally had to work in the hospitality industry. But some of them seemed happy doing so.

It's important to consider that many places "thought of" as villages, are actually preserved old towns, now directly abutting and surrounded by postwar, reinforced concrete (if, low-rise to Americans ... ) modern small cities.

Yep, come to Vermont. Lots of villages, complete with white churches, general stores, and mom and pop restaurants :-)

I think of a village as smaller than a town, with a sense of community and a lifestyle that revolves around that central area, places you can walk to instead of driving from store to store. Picturesque doesn't hurt either :-)

I live in one; I cannot go to our local food market without seeing someone I know. I always need to budget extra time because I know I'll be catching up with someone I haven't seen in a while. Going to the restaurant up the road involves scoping out who's there and who's with whom. Likewise stopping for gas means I'll usually run into someone I know, or even if I don't, I'll have a good chat with the checkout clerk inside. We're a pretty neighborly bunch.

Just as a little side note, one reason for such geographic differences in the United States is that the way the country was settled and developed changed over time and region. It makes sense that there are small villages in the Northeast and basically none in the West. The Homestead Act of 1862 granted 160 acres to anyone who would farm the land in the west. [not going to get into the moral issues with this land grab].

These lands were organized as follows in many places:
"Land is broken down into areas called townships. Townships are for the most part 36 square miles or 6 miles square. Each township is broken down into 36 sections; each section is usually 640 acres." When I lived in Northern Minnesota you could really see this at work. The main roads in our community were all built on the section lines, basically 1 mile apart.

Wow such fascinating and insightful responses, thank you! I'm going through them now. I guess I'm going to have to expand my definition of a "village" from purely demographic to more of a "state of mind" I really like that definition.

Just looking at Rick Steves' popular tour called "Village Italy in 14 Days" most of the stops are actually large towns with populations in the upper tens of thousands!

Regarding Canada, I assumed there would not be a similar dynamic considering "villages vs towns". Villages seem much more prevalent, especially among the First Nations in Canada and parts of rural Québec if I am not mistaken.

DebVT essentially gave my answer.

There are many picturesque villages in New England. The focal point is usually the church. The small town I grew up in had "_______ Village". It was/is a small neighborhood with the original branch church growth that the first migration settlers/church goers allowed to be to set up as a branch church, so the members did not have to travel 8+ miles each way, each Sunday for church/government. Even the village, where this first branch as stood as a result of migration in 1643, has moved as the original meeting house moved, but for several centuries is remained where it is. The 20th C. village had a cluster of homes, the post office, a river factory ruin, a community hall and library, and a dairy farm, etc. Throughout Massachusetts, I do not know any town that is a village, but rather a neighborhood that is called a village.

And Deb is absolutely correct about the social part (or lack of privacy of a village or small town). A childhood of no privacy lead me to the city. Anonymity, thank you very much!

I got out a “coffee table” book I leave out for our European visitors. It’s called The Most Beautiful Villages and Towns of California. I was hoping they had something about the distinction between towns and villages but they don’t. They did mention criteria of places who’s population was <40,000 people. Both author and photographer have strong ties to National Geographic Traveler. They did mention that the chosen place have an active community with a great sense of history. They chose 30 towns in four areas of the state.

I think many states could come up with interesting, historical, charming towns/villages.

to add to the confusion is apparent random use of the terms village, town, city in the US.

When I was a child we lived for a time in a place on Long Island called Garden City. The full name was Village of Garden City. It was a town of about 25,000 when I was there. So in one location, all 3 size designations. Huh?

Two places in New England called villages that I have visited for many years . Dripping with bucolic charm - https://www.stoningtonboroughct.com/ and here - https://readelysian.com/cape-ann-annisquam/

I grew up in a tiny village on the Susquehanna river. It was a railroad driven village. When I was a kid there, there were only about 500 population. It was very quaint and beautiful. It no longer is due to people not taking care of their property, tree removal with no trees re-planted, torn up old slab stone sidewalks removed, beautiful porches gone too. So, for me, a village is tiny. The place has not grown much and is still known as the Village of—-

There are many "villages" in the US. For example, Ohio has many villages, which are called that by statute.

(A) Municipal corporations, which, at the last federal census, had a population of five thousand or more, or five thousand registered resident electors or resident voters as provided in section 703.011 of the Revised Code, are cities. All other municipal corporations are villages. Cities, which, at any federal census, have a population of less than five thousand, shall become villages. Villages, which, at any federal census, have a population of five thousand or more, shall become cities.

As noted above, a village in Ohio is any municipality with a population under 5000. There were quite a few villages in Cincinnati where I spent most of my life. Many villages now use the term in their marketing strategy; like The Village of Mariemont, which is a quaint village near where I lived with lots of high-priced housing.

There used to be a lot more but most of them were caught up and incorporated by the city of Cincinnati (which is true in many larger cities in Ohio).

Rightly or wrongly, I never use the term village for anyplace in the US. However, I can see where small towns in Vermont could be considered villages.

I think of villages as very small old towns with less than 5,000 people in rural areas in Europe. If there are a fairly small number of houses and no pub or retail establishment, I would call it a hamlet.

Someone says a village is larger than a hamlet (that also undefined). I would say that true village has lots of quaintness and charm but really nothing much more. Perhaps a pub, one small grocer, not a grocery store as we know it. Most likely a church. It is a place you might stop to stretch enroute to somewhere else. You can walk its “Main Street” in only a few minutes. Maybe you have drink in the singular cafe or bar. Then you move on.
A village is for a photo and a drink. Maybe there is a gas station.
If it is a place near a main road, it may have more. A village is a place that has a historical past, the reason for its existence. It has a present that has passed that past. And it has a future of very little beyond existing as is, and maybe even hanging on.

The town in New England where I spent most of my childhood is still a “village” in my mind. A river runs through it and the train depot, later turned snack bar by my grandpa was a pretty good place to grow up. However, it was one of those places where a kid could not get away with any shenanigans. We were often the gossip of the town. Lisbon, NH - population about 1,600.

https://www.lisbonnh.org/

The Villages in Florida is the #1 retirement destination, the final stop for seniors. That's a village.

In the United Kingdom I was taught at School (many a long year ago!) that a hamlet is a village which does not have a Church, and that a village became a town when it was granted a Royal Charter to hold a market- whether weekly or for specific religious festivals during the year.
Until very recent years a town became a city when it had a Cathedral (hence oddly small cities like St David's and St Asaph's in Wales).

Those were/are the technical definitions, which had some other background definitions depending on the services a settlement had.

In everyday useage when a village becomes a town is much less clear. In these days of widespread church closures I don't think anyone would downgrade a village to a hamlet because it's Church had closed.

What do Americans mean when they say "Village"?

Safest thing to do is ask the person that used the word .

I think I only use or hear the term village when talking about small places in foreign countries, that is, only in the context of travel. Not in common usage in the midwest unless it's part of the name.

This is a very interesting discussion. Have never lived where a "village" was a legal boundary and was ignorant of that.

Carlos, as a Canadian, I would never have considered our indigenous to live in 'villages' as they are still unfortunately, called 'reservations'. Though due to size perhaps they would fit.
Nat Geo and Wikipedia define a village by population https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/village/
Canada, given its size and diverse settlement history, has small living areas that arose around longevity (eastern Canada....Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with their histories of 300 years or more of settlement), agriculture, fisheries, mining, lumber, ranching and gold rushes; and those range from coast to coast. Places, that may have been bustling at some part in their history, have been reduced to almost ghost towns and to my mind may only warrant hamlet or village status now with only a few homes and maybe a bakery or corner store as living evidence. Now, I could be wrong, as they may be part of an extensive municipality driving up overall numbers....but you get my drift. As a casual traveler, the concentrated hub is small.
I would consider the settled areas around Placerville, California or old lumber towns in Oregon to also have experienced the same fall from splendor to the casual tourist and be considered villages, though they may have at one time been incorporated as towns by charter, or other definitions in their history.
I find them fascinating, but fading beauties...unlike what we may consider worth visiting 'villages/towns' of Andalusia.

Yes quite an interesting and educational topic this has turned out to be, thank you to all for your insight. Who knew that there were so many "villages" of all shapes and sizes in the United States :-)

Safest thing to do is ask the person that used the word .

Well as acraven mentioned earlier we do usually ask the OPs what they mean by "village", like how big and pop est, rarely do we get an answer back for that specifically :-(

I think both the American Main Street and the European Village might be two sides of the same coin -- near mythic creations fed by decades of popular culture.

That's an interesting notion History Traveler! I think in Europe there are two kinds of villages, those with the benefit of touristic sites and those without one aka just your average village. In Spain for example we have Albarracín, Potes, Besalú which are very picturesque and well known, then you have many villages, especially in the center of the country, which hardly sees a tourist, let alone a foreign one, we call this Deep Spain or España Profunda, where the rural village life is still alive and not subservient to tourism.

I am a New Yorker, and I live in the Village of Mexico (perhaps the most inappropriately named village in the world, lol). The population is less than 2000 people, but the village contains all of the things the previous posters noted, a school, a grocery store, a few restaurants and shop, a fire department, all within walking distance of my home. My village resides in the center of the larger town of the same name. I do agree that villages are more common in the NE part of the United States, and I've lived in many villages during my life.

My experience of village life is as DebVT described, where it's almost unheard of to go anywhere and not see someone you know.

Carlos, I'd argue that an American village is very similar to a Spanish one in size, comparative density, mix of commercial and residential use, walkability, and sense of community. In the US they're probably more common east of the Mississippi, and maybe even more in the north...?

I think a difference from Spanish municipal structures, much more of the US population (far outside metro areas—even farther than any suburbs), live in lower-density small to mid-size towns. Towns where average lot sizes are 1-5 acres. Those small towns might have a 'town center', which is mostly commercial, barely residential.

Like justsweetjs just above me here, I live in New York state, where we have legally incorporated villages—564 of them, actually. (Which I think are all subsections of larger, usually more rural towns. My village of Millerton has a population of 900. We have a village board, the chair of which is titled Mayor. It's inside the larger town of NorthEast, population of around 3,500 (which includes the 900). NorthEast has its own town board and Mayor. I vote in both elections (and pay both tax bills!)

I grew up in Connecticut, where there was a similar setup, but the village was formally a "borough". Still an additional layer of government and services. Similary more densely developed than the surrounding town.

A quick scan of the google images of both places actually sums up my image of a village pretty well:

Google Images Village of Millerton
Google Maps Village of Millerton (best viewed in satellite mode)

Google Images Stonington Borough
Google Maps Stonington Borough

I would note that both where I live and where I grew up are 2-3 hours from NYC, and popular for day trips, getaways, and second/weekend/summer homes. Thusly, have an odd mix of commercial services, larger than the local population could support on its own. The small independant grocery stores are long closed, but antiquing options abound.

Good question Carlos, and I've been wondering the same because it is a term used quite a bit when people are seeking the ideal setting. Sammy is really the expert in this field, but here is what I found.

I tried to see how the French define village, ville (town), hameau (hamlet). First, there's no fixed definition but the government research bureau, akin to the US census, has traditionally used 2,000 or fewer inhabitants to define village. However, the Association of Mayors uses 3,500. Anything above is a ville--no distinction between town and city, but small town, medium-size town, large town and agglomeration are used. There is more nuance with the used of the French word "commune" but I'm not qualified to explain. Finally, a hamlet is a group of buildings with a few residences.

My father-in-law's birth hamlet had five families, while their village where they retired had 2,000 if all the new houses were included. You can be sure that today's villages don't have rail service, maybe a once-a-day bus service to a ville, hopefully a bakery or food store or restaurant, but not always nowadays, so they aren't the ideal landing place without a car.

In Germany, you would call a village a "Dorf". It may have a small chapel, a tiny graveyard, usually a pub, a small store for the residents to get staples, a bakery, and probably no traffic light. I would define villages in other countries in Europe or even in the US, the same way. Certainly with minimal populations.

There were many villages in the areas we were stationed in upstate NY as well as CT.

Dorf. That's funny! Sort of like Ausfahrt.

It seems to me that, for village vs. hamlet vs. town vs. settlement vs. city vs. municipality to a U.S. citizen, you know it when you see it. One person’s town could be another person’s city. Village would seem to be smaller, and less industrialized than a town, and probably no fast food restaurants. Thatched roofs are another indication of probable village designation.

This could seem arbitrary to many, but for me, anything with a population exceeding 30,000 is definitely a city - anything smaller could be a smaller city, or arguably a larger town.

But what makes a place “quaint?” Is that really in the eye of the beholder, and varies from person to person? I bet there’s no legal definition, and is really subjective for marketing or promotional purposes.

"But what makes a place “quaint?” Is that really in the eye of the beholder, and varies from person to person? I bet there’s no legal definition, and is really subjective for marketing or promotional purposes."

Cyn...I laughed when I read that and my mind shot back to an Air B&B in Bisbee AZ a few years ago. I was looking at the literature on the counter and one of the brochures from Bisbee CofC or Tourism etc was comparing Bisbee to Orta San Giulio. Well, it so happened that 3 of us had been on Rick's Village Italy tour and we just laughed aloud. In no possible way - except for a few steep stone staircases - did Bisbee resemble Orta San Giulio. Gorgeous mountain lake (Orta) vs Big Pit Mine (Bisbee)...yikes. Definitely a promotional tool and I'm assuming they figured not too many had been to Orta San Giulio. My mind is still boggled at the comparison.

You can be sure that today's villages don't have rail service, maybe a once-a-day bus service to a ville, hopefully a bakery or food store or restaurant, but not always nowadays, so they aren't the ideal landing place without a car.

That's a great point Bets, many times when I recommend an actual "village" (less than 2000 people) to visit the OPs seem genuinely surprised when they find out they can't readily get there by public transportation, any time of the week, if at all. I wonder if when they are able to make it to these villages I recommend they wonder "well there's nothing to do here!" "where are the tapas bars!" "why isn't the church open!" lol.

I know Europe has a reputation for public transportation but most of these villages are not connected by train and seldom by bus, a car is the only way to get out there. There's a reason why these villages haven't grown much in the last millennia... they are often isolated places, protected by natural barriers, mostly cut off from the outside world, which is part of their intrinsic charm.

We have the Value Village in the U.S.. I know, wrong Village :)

You aren’t alone Calvados. When my French in-laws moved to a village for retirement, it took five years and a new puppy before anyone noticed them. Children and pets break the ice.

Interesting question, Carlos!

I’ve used the term a lot, and my mental definition is a tiny town where there’s no stoplights and a small population. There’s several of those in my home state of Iowa, but we never referred to them as villages, only towns. They were also called farming communities because the people on the farms were then included in that description.

My switch from referring to an inhabited place as a village instead of a town definitely implies the cuteness factor. Vermont has villages. France and other European countries - yes on villages. Add some outer parts of a place to drive through before you reach the historic center, and it becomes a town.

We do use “Village” in the US to imply that friendly, small community feeling, i.e. retirement neighborhoods with smaller homes close together with maybe a gazebo in a center park have the word “village” as part of the neighborhood name.

No villages in the US? It’s time for you to travel!

No villages in the US? It’s time for you to travel!

Ah yes, well I'm a newcomer to the USA, so you will have to cut me some slack.

But next time I make my way through Rural USA, I will remark "what a small and charming village you folks have here, almost like Disneyland", I'm sure the locals we be pleased ha! :-)

I'm sure the locals we be pleased ha! :-)

Locals in a village are The Village People !!! :-) :-)

Carlos, you could visit ghost towns in the Dakotas, although some aren't big enough to even be a village. Basically an old train stop at best. Make a week or so road trip to include the Badlands, Black Hills, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, and then into Montana to Little Big Horn. Sort of an Old West road trip with a lot of history.

Now I've got "The Villages" corndog theme song in my head.

YMCA by the Village People is a great party song to dance to if you're inebriated. Those were the days, my friends!

Officially, a village is an area of houses, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town. Usually no more than 7500 people Mostly in rural areas. Mostly smaller stores rather than a large department store or mall.

What's a hamlet......it's defined as......"a small village." In the UK, a hamlet is an area without a church.

Other definitions of hamlet.....the Prince of Denmark.......a little pig.

The word itself is French and equivalent to words in German, Spanish, and Italian. But the Norman invasion in 1066, and 300 years of French speaking kings in England leading to French's heavy influence on English made this word more comfortable than burg, pueblo, commune, or whatever.

In the past decade or two, many cutesy places in the US have names with the term "village" in them. For example in San Diego there is "Carlsbad Village" which is down town of a city called Carlsbad. So there is a connotation of something cozy and attractive. There are various large housing complexes with the word village in them too.

There is also the book by Hillary Clinton "It takes a village" about communal activities.

Do residents of Carlsbad Village and other such places refer to themselves as “villagers?”

Cyn: Yes.

There are many areas that are for lack of a better word, "zoned" as "villages" in Wisconsin.

If the requirement to be a village is to have at least one "village idiot", Washington DC is definitely a village, as are most of the state capitals.

cala, you mean someone like Otis from Mayberry? Goober?

Back to the OP, it's semantics yes?

I'm sure there are some formal definitions, but I'm also sure that a deconstructionist could have a field day pointing out the slippages between this particular signifier and signified.

requirement to be a village is to have at least one "village idiot” …
someone like Otis from Mayberry?

But Otis was the town drunk, so what, did that make Mayberry?

There are small villages in America. Here is a pretty small one

Alaska has many villages!