Town with county rights

A town with county rights (or urban county, Hungarian: megyei jogú város) is a level of administrative subdivision in Hungary which can be considered as a city in some English-speaking countries. All county seats and localities with more than 50,000 inhabitants are given this status by the Hungarian Parliament and the President. On the other hand, this title cannot be taken back by any law so towns like Hódmezővásárhely or Dunaújváros that are neither county seat nor inhabited by more than 50,000 people are still megyei jogú város. Since 2006, there are 23 towns with county rights. Before 1950, the former so-called towns with municipal rights (törvényhatósági jogú város) had a similar status as the present urban counties.

Budapest is not considered as an urban county and has a special status among the other Hungarian towns.

Every town with county rights is allowed to be subdivised into sectors. The representative body is the General Meeting (közgyűlés) which elects with the County Assembly a council that takes care of different tasks related to the county.

History

Between 1954 and 1971, the four largest regional cities received the megyei jogú város title. These were Debrecen, Miskolc, Pécs and Szeged. Then, from 1971 to 1990, the four precedent cities and Győr had a new status called county town (megyei város) which was given in 1989 to three other towns: Salgótarján, Nyíregyháza and Kecskemét. After the end of Communism, this status was deleted and replaced by the urban counties as until 1971. The eight megyei város and twelve more towns became megyei jogú város.

List

Coats of arms	City	County	Population (2013)	Urban county since
50px	Békéscsaba	20px Békés	61 046	1990
50px	Debrecen	20px Hajdú-Bihar	204 333	1990
50px	Dunaújváros	20px Fejér	46 813	1990
50px	Eger	20px Heves	54 867	1990
50px	Érd	20px Pest	63 333	2006
50px	Győr	20px Győr-Moson-Sopron	128 567	1990
50px	Hódmezővásárhely	20px Csongrád	45 700	1990
50px	Kaposvár	20px Somogy	65 337	1990
50px	Kecskemét	Bács-Kiskun	111 863	1990
50px	Miskolc	20px Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén	162 905	1990
50px	Nagykanizsa	20px Zala	49 070	1990
	Nyíregyháza	20px Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg	118 185	1990
50px	Pécs	20px Baranya	147 719	1990
50px	Salgótarján	20px Nógrád	37 199	1994
50px	Sopron	20px Győr-Moson-Sopron	60 528	1990
50px	Szeged	20px Csongrád	161 837	1990
50px	Szekszárd	Tolna	33 599	1994
50px	Székesfehérvár	20px Fejér	99 247	1990
50px	Szolnok	Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok	73 193	1990
50px	Szombathely	Vas	77 547	1990
50px	Tatabánya	20px Komárom-Esztergom	67 406	1990
	Veszprém	20px Veszprém	60 876	1990
50px	Zalaegerszeg	20px Zala	59 618	1990

External links

• Alliance of Towns with County Rights