Localité

Localité is a French noun that denotes a locality, a specific place or settlement within a larger territory. It can refer to a populated place—such as a town, village, or hamlet—or to a district within a commune, or more generally to any location. The term emphasizes place and community rather than legal status.

Etymology and sense: Localité derives from Latin localitas, through Old French, and in modern usage it covers both the physical site and the social group living there. It is a broad term compared with more precise designations such as ville (city) or village, since localité focuses on the place rather than its administrative designation.

Administrative and statistical use: In many countries, localité functions as a unit of geography for census data, land surveys, postal addressing, and geographic information systems. It may not have formal legal status as an administrative entity, and its boundaries can be defined by statistical, planning, or cadastral authorities and may change over time.

Context and usage: The term is common in French-speaking regions such as France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada, where it appears in planning documents, maps, and statistics to denote the inhabited place where people live, distinct from rural countryside. Related terms include lieu, site, settlement, and neighborhood, and the concept is often used in toponymy and demographic reporting.