Borough

New York City, in the U.S. state of New York, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough has the same boundaries as a county of the state. The county governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county.

The term borough was adopted to describe a unique form of governmental administration for each of the five fundamental constituent parts of the newly consolidated city. Technically, under New York State Law, a "borough" is a municipal corporation that is created when a county is merged with populated areas within it.[citation needed] This differs significantly from typical borough forms of government used in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alaska, other states, Greater London, and elsewhere.