The municipalities and cities (Serbian: општине и градови, romanized: opštine i gradovi) are the first-level administrative division and the basic level of local government of Serbia.

Like in many other countries, municipalities (Serbian: општине, romanized: opštine) are the basic entities of local government in Serbia.

Only the cities officially have mayors (Serbian: градоначелници, romanized: gradonačelnici), although the municipal presidents are often informally referred to as such.

This move is not recognised by Government of Serbia (see Municipalities and cities of Kosovo section).

Advocates of reform of local self-government system point out that Serbian municipalities (with 50,000 citizens in average) are the largest in Europe, both by territory and number of residents, and as such can be inefficient in handling citizens' needs and distributing the income from the country budget into most relevant projects.

[5][6] Cities (Serbian: градови, romanized: gradovi) are another type of local self-government.

Later, from 2005 to 2008, seven new municipalities were created: Gračanica, Elez Han, Junik, Parteš, Klokot, Ranilug and Mamuša.

In three of those municipalities: Gračanica, Klokot-Vrbovac and Ranilug, Serbian parties won a majority in the 2009 elections.