In addition, the 16 boroughs of Mexico City are considered municipality equivalent, this makes the total number of municipality-level divisions to be 2,478.

Nonetheless, auxiliary presidencies are not considered a third-level administrative division since they depend fiscally on the municipalities in which they are located.

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.

[5] Mexico City is divided in 16 boroughs, officially called demarcaciones territoriales, substituting the old delegaciones.

The boroughs are considered as third-level territorial divisions for statistical data collection and cross-country comparisons.

Since the Conquest and colonization of Mexico, the municipality became the basic entity of the administrative organization of New Spain and the Spanish Empire.

During the first decades, the local authorities had full powers on the public and economic administration of each municipality, but successive reforms diminished their attributions.

The Constitution of 1917 abolished the jefatura política ("political authority"), the intermediate administrative authority between the states and converted all existing municipalities into municipios libres ("free municipalities"), that is, gave them full autonomy to manage local affairs, while at the same time restricting the scope of their competencies.

[9] However, in 1983 the 115th article was modified to expand the municipalities' authority to raise revenue (through property taxes and other local services) and to formulate budgets.