"Five Boroughs" redirects here. For the Mercian area of this name during the tenth and eleventh centuries, see Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.

 New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. The county governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county, all being governed by the expanded city. 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. This differs significantly from typical borough forms of government used in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alaska, other states, Greater London, and elsewhere.