Editing List of communities in Alberta (section)

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[[File:Alberta Topo Labeled 90 dpi.png|thumb|400px|Rural and specialized municipalities, cities, towns, and select hamlets in Alberta]]
[[File:Alberta's Specialized and Rural Municipalities.png|thumb|400px|alt=Locations of Alberta's specialized and rural municipalities|Distribution of Alberta's [[List of specialized municipalities in Alberta|6 specialized municipalities]] (red) and 74 rural municipalities, which include [[List of municipal districts in Alberta|municipal districts]] that are often branded as counties (orange), [[List of communities in Alberta#Improvement districts|improvement districts]] (dark green) and [[Special Areas Board|special areas]] (light green) (2020)]]

The province of [[Alberta]], Canada, is divided into ten types of [[Local government in Canada|local governments]] – urban municipalities (including [[List of cities in Alberta|cities]], [[List of towns in Alberta|towns]], [[List of villages in Alberta|villages]] and [[List of summer villages in Alberta|summer villages]]), [[List of specialized municipalities in Alberta|specialized municipalities]], [[List of municipalities in Alberta#Rural municipalities|rural municipalities]] (including [[List of municipal districts in Alberta|municipal district]]s (often named as counties), [[List of communities in Alberta#Improvement districts|improvement districts]], and [[List of communities in Alberta#Special areas|special areas]]), [[Métis in Alberta|Métis settlements]], and [[Indian reserves]]. All types of municipalities are governed by local residents and were incorporated under various provincial acts, with the exception of improvement districts (governed by either the provincial or federal government), and [[List of Indian reserves in Alberta|Alberta's Indian reserves]] (governed by local [[band government]]s under federal jurisdiction).

Alberta also has numerous unincorporated communities (including [[List of communities in Alberta#urban service area|urban service areas]], hamlets and a [[List of communities in Alberta#Townsites|townsite]]) that are not independent municipalities in their own right. However, they are all recognized as sub-municipal entities by [[Ministry of Municipal Affairs (Alberta)|Ministry of Municipal Affairs]] under the jurisdiction of specialized municipalities or rural municipalities, with the exception of the lone townsite (its jurisdiction is shared with an Indian reserve that surrounds it).

With the exception of Métis settlements, [[Statistics Canada]] recognizes all of Alberta's municipalities as [[Census geographic units of Canada#Census subdivisions|census subdivisions]] and groups them into 19 census divisions based on geography. Within census divisions, Statistics Canada groups some of Alberta's municipalities/census subdivisions into two [[Census geographic units of Canada#Census metropolitan areas|census metropolitan areas]] (CMAs) or 12 [[Census geographic units of Canada#Census agglomerations|census agglomeration]]s (CAs) for enumeration purposes. All CMAs include large urban centres and surrounding census subdivisions. All CAs also include large urban centres and in some cases their surrounding census subdivisions.

With the exception of Indian reserves, the administration of municipalities in Alberta is regulated by the Municipal Government Act,<ref name=munact>{{cite web | url=http://www.qp.alberta.ca/574.cfm?page=M26.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779744916 | publisher=Alberta Queen's Printer | title=Municipal Government Act | access-date=December 6, 2009}}</ref> the Special Areas Act<ref name=specact>{{cite web | url=http://www.qp.alberta.ca/574.cfm?page=S16.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=0779703685 | publisher=Alberta Queen's Printer | title=Special Areas Act | access-date=December 6, 2009}}</ref> and the Metis Settlements Act.<ref name=metisact>{{cite web | url=http://www.qp.alberta.ca/574.cfm?page=m14.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779743704 | publisher=Alberta Queen's Printer | title=Metis Settlements Act | access-date=December 6, 2009}}</ref>

As of 2019, the combined unofficial population of all of Alberta's municipalities was 4,271,759.<ref name=2019pop>{{cite web|url=https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/daab9fce-c2f6-49d1-a433-375b2b7aee24/resource/61cd908d-e2b9-4837-939b-533848d723b9/download/2019_mapl_web.pdf|publisher=Alberta Municipal Affairs|title=2019 Municipal Affairs Population List|date=November 22, 2012|access-date=March 6, 2013}}</ref>