no additional inherent powers; city status depends on a grant from the monarch and merely confers on the place so designated the right to call itself a city. Many cities and large urban areas are unitary authorities, meaning they have their own local government, separate from the surrounding county. (However, a number of large urban areas have a number of unitary authorities, such as Greater Manchester, which mean they do not have a unified, citywide local government.) County borough referred to a borough or a city, independent of county council control in England and Wales from 1889 to 1974 with the term continuing in use in Northern Ireland. Wales re-introduced the term in 1994 for use with certain unitary authorities. London, the capital of the United Kingdom and its constituent country England, is administratively Greater London, which consists of the City of London and 32 London boroughs. Greater London is not one of the metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, which the remainder of England is subdivided into. London has its own assembly and directly elected mayor, which exercise local government/devolved powers greater than any other city or place in the UK, apart from the nations/provinces of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Gibraltar is also autonomous. North America Canada In the Canadian province of Ontario, independent cities are referred to as a single-tier municipalities. In addition, there are also separated municipalities. In Quebec, they are often called separated cities, as they are not a part of their surrounding regional county municipality. In Alberta, all municipalities (cities, towns, villages, and summer villages) are separate from their surrounding county. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, all cities, towns, villages, and resort villages are separate from their surrounding rural municipality; unincorporated communities, including local urban districts, remain part of the rural municipality they lie within. In New Brunswick, all county government was abolished in 1967. Therefore, in theory, all cities, townships, and settlements in New Brunswick could be considered independent cities. Dominican Republic In Dominican Republic the Nacional District, containing the city of Santo Domingo de Guzman was created as a special district in 1922. Mexico Previously, the Federal District was a separate entity from any of the states of Mexico. However, on 30 January 2016, it became one of the states of the Mexican Republic, as well as the capital of the country, calling itself Mexico City. United States There are 41 independent cities in the