In Lithuania, there are 103 cities (in Lithuanian: singular – miestas, plural – miestai). The term city is defined by the Parliament of Lithuania as compact areas populated by more than 3,000 people of whom at least two thirds work in the industry or service sector. Those settlements which have a population of less than 3,000 but historically had city status are still considered to be cities. Smaller settlements are called miestelis (plural miesteliai) which is translated as towns. Even smaller settlements (villages) are called kaimas (plural kaimai). Often the official status is not clear and people refer to both towns and villages as gyvenvietė (plural gyvenvietės) which in essence means settlement.
The cities started to form in the 13th-14th century together with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first city to receive city rights was Klaipėda. According to medieval law, a city could have its own fairs, taverns, guilds, courts, etc. Some former cities lost their status are now just towns or villages, for example Kernavė or Merkinė. Most of the cities in Lithuania are old, established before the 18th century. Their location is mostly determined by trade and transportation routes. Some of the newer cities grew because of railroad construction, for example Kaišiadorys, Vievis, Radviliškis, Ignalina or Mažeikiai. In the last century cities grew new to big industry centers, for example Visaginas, Elektrėnai or Naujoji Akmenė. Five cities – Birštonas, Druskininkai, Neringa, Palanga and Anykščiai – have a special resort status.
Most of the cities are small. There are only 19 cities with population of more than 20,000. Cities are quite evenly spread out through the territory of Lithuania. This forms a good network to support economic development throughout the country. At the 2001 census 66.7% of the population lived in cities and the percentage is growing.
Population sizes are given according to Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (Statistics Lithuania) data for 2008 and census of 2001. The cities are sorted according to 2001 census data because it is more reliable (data from 2008 is derived from census data using various formulas and models).
"City rights" means rights to self-governing. For older cities usually it is the date when Magdeburg rights were granted. Most dates are obtained from Lithuanian Wikipedia which assembled the information from several different sources. One of the main sources was Population Statistics. This information cannot be completely trusted.
At the time of 2001 census, there were 106 cities in Lithuania. Government of Republic of Lithuania made these changes:
On December 16, 2002 Juodupė lost city status and became a town;
On February 25, 2003 Kulautuva lost city status and became a town;
On April 8, 2003 Tyruliai lost city status and became a town.
Cities without coat of arms image do not have it confirmed by the President of Lithuania. Municipalities share coat of arms with their capitals with the exception of cities which are capitals of more than one municipality (i.e. a city municipality and a district municipality) in which case the city municipality shares the coat of arms with the city, while the district municipality has its own distinct coat of arms. Another notable exception is Trakai town, which has different coat of arms than does its municipality (Trakai district municipality).
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