Editing Village (section)

===Germany===
In Germany a ''Dorf'' (village) usually consists of at least a few houses but can have up to a few thousand inhabitants. Larger villages can also be referred to as a ''Flecken'' or ''Markt'' depending on the region and the settlement's market rights. Smaller villages usually do not have their own government. Instead, they are part ({{lang|de|Ortsteil}}) of the municipality of a nearby town.
In the settlement geography typology in Germany, a distinction is made between individual settlements and group settlements. Only group settlements of a certain size (“large group settlement”) are referred to as villages. The size that a settlement must have in order to be considered a village varies from region to region. Only settlements in rural areas are referred to as villages. Ideal villages were traditionally characterized by agriculture, most of the inhabitants were farmers or agricultural workers, the settlement form was determined by the farmhouses and was closely connected to the surrounding farmland, the meadow and the traditional land forms. In addition, the majority of the population used to live in rural settlements, whereas today only a small proportion still does. Whereas in the [[German Reich]] in 1900, almost half (46%) of the population lived in rural areas, the proportion in the [[Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] had fallen to around a quarter (23%) by 2015.