Municipalities in Chihuahua are administratively autonomous of the state according to the 115th article of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico.[2] Every three years, citizens elect a municipal president (Spanish; Castilian: presidente municipal) by a plurality voting system who heads a concurrently elected municipal council (Spanish; Castilian: ayuntamiento) responsible for providing all the public services for their constituents. The municipal council consists of a variable number of trustees and councillors (Spanish; Castilian: regidores y síndicos).[3] Municipalities are responsible for public services (such as water and sewerage), street lighting, public safety, traffic, and the maintenance of public parks, gardens and cemeteries.[4] They may also assist the state and federal governments in education, emergency fire and medical services, environmental protection and maintenance of monuments and historical landmarks. Since 1984, they have had the power to collect property taxes and user fees, although more funds are obtained from the state and federal governments than from their own income.
The largest municipality by population is Ciudad Juárez, Mexico's sixth largest municipality, with 1,512,450 residents or approximately of the state population. The smallest municipality by population is Huejotitán, with 824 residents. The largest municipality by land area is Ahumada, which spans 16927.596km2, and the smallest is Santa Bárbara, which spans 346.153km2. The first municipality to incorporate was Rosales, on, and the newest municipality is Guachochi, which incorporated on .