Neighborhood

Neighbourhood is also a term used in mathematics (see the concepts of neighbourhood in topology and the concepts of neighbour and neighbourhood in graph theory) and a song by Space. (see Neighbourhood (song))

A neighborhood (AmE) or neighbourhood (CwE) is a geographically localized community located within a larger city or suburb. The residents of a given neighbourhood are called neighbors (or neighbours), although this term may also be used across much larger distances in rural areas.

Traditionally, a neighborhood is small enough that the neighbors are all able to know each other. However in practice, neighbors may not know one another very well at all. Villages aren't divided into neighborhoods, because they are already small enough that the villagers can all know each other.

In Canada and the United States, neighborhoods are often given official or semi-official status through neighborhood associations, or block watches. These may regulate such matters as lawn care and fence height, and they may provide such services as block parties, neighborhood parks, and community security. In some other places the equivalent organisation is the parish, though a parish may have several neighborhoods within it depending on the area.

In the mainland of the People's Republic of China, the term is generally used for the urban administrative unit usually found immediately below the district level, although an intermediate, subdistrict level exists in some cities. They are also called streets (administrative terminology may vary from city to city). Neighborhoods encompass 2,000 to 10,000 families. Within neighborhoods, families are grouped into smaller residential units or quarters of 100 to 600 families and supervised by a residents' committee; these are subdivided into residents' small groups of fifteen to forty families. In most urban area of China, neighborhood, community, residential community, residential unit, residential quarter have the same meaning: 社区 or 小区 or 居民区 or 居住区, and is the direct sublevel of a subdistrict (街道办事处), which is the direct sublevel of a district (区), which is the direct sublevel of a city (市). (See Political divisions of China)

See also

• Barrio
• Unincorporated community
• community