Municipalities of Lithuania

{{Short description|Second-level administrative division}}

{{More footnotes|date=November 2021}}

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{{Politics of Lithuania}}

{{Administrative division of Lithuania sidebar}}

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Lithuania is divided into three levels of administrative divisions. The first-level division consists of 10 counties (Lithuanian: singular – apskritis, plural – apskritys). These are sub-divided into 60 municipalities (Lithuanian: plural – savivaldybės, singular – savivaldybė), which in turn are further sub-divided into over 500 smaller groups, known as elderships (Lithuanian: plural – seniūnijos, singular – seniūnija).

At the end of its tenure as a Soviet Socialist Republic, Lithuania's administrative divisions consisted of 44 regions, 12 cities, 80 towns, 19 settlements, and 426 rural districts.{{cite book|title=Conference on Local and Regional Authority Co-operation in the Baltic Sea Area: proceedings, Kaunas, Lithuania, 21-23, April 1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mwf_B72sxDoC&pg=PA9|access-date=16 February 2011|date=January 2000|publisher=Council of Europe|isbn=978-92-871-4538-3|page=9}} The reform of this system was an immediate concern for the new government.{{cite web|url=http://www.coe.int/t/dgap/localdemocracy/programmes_democratic_stability/imc/Warsaw_Documents/Warsaw_Vaiciuniene.pdf|publisher=Council of Europe|author=Jolanta Vaičiūnienė|date=2008-11-14|access-date=16 February 2011|title=The Administrative–Territorial Reform in Lithuania: History and Today}} The Constitution of Lithuania, ratified in 1992, delegated the power of establishing future administrative units to the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas). Accordingly, the Seimas passed two fundamental laws: a 1993 law on government representation and a 1994 law specifying the territorial-administrative units and their boundaries. The current system of a set of municipalities under 10 counties was codified by 1995. Several changes were made in 2000, resulting in 60 municipalities.{{cite book|author1=Local Economic and Employment Development (Program)|author2=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development|title=Baltic partnerships: integration, growth and local governance in the Baltic Sea Region|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7TJcbAm2gEC&pg=PA75|access-date=23 February 2011|date=April 2007|publisher=OECD Publishing|isbn=978-92-64-02928-6|page=75}}

Ordinary municipal councilors are elected every four years from electoral lists using proportional representation. The mayor, who used to be a member of the council until 2023,{{cite news | last=Skėrytė | first=Jūratė | title=Apžvalga: naujai išrinktiems merams – didesni įgaliojimai | work=LRT | date=14 March 2023 | url=https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/1936039/apzvalga-naujai-isrinktiems-merams-didesni-igaliojimai | language=lt | access-date=20 March 2024}} is elected directly by the residents using the two-round system since 2015 reforms.{{cite web |url=http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter3/dokpaieska.showdoc_l?p_id=491878 |title=Law on elections to municipal councils |publisher=The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania |access-date=31 July 2015}} Before then, the mayors were elected by the municipal councils.

The largest municipality by population in Lithuania is Vilnius City Municipality with 593,436 residents, home to one fifth ({{percentage|593436|2867725

|1}}) of the country's population. The smallest municipality by population is Neringa Municipality with 4,173 ({{percentage|4173|2867725

|1}}) residents.{{cite web |url=https://osp.stat.gov.lt/lt/statistiniu-rodikliu-analize?hash=e0d04c67-3f37-4974-a046-4e07ffd159a8 | date=2023-08-07 |title=Resident population on 1 July |website=osp.stat.gov.lt}}

The largest municipality by land area is Varėna District Municipality, which spans {{convert|2216|km2|mi2|abbr=on}}, while the smallest is Alytus City Municipality at {{convert|40|km2|mi2|abbr=on}}.