New towns, sometimes also known as planned communities, are places that have been carefully planned from their inception. Examples of these include state and country capitals, company towns, and retirement communities as well as “garden cities” and the more contemporary new urbanist developments. This diverse array of towns is tied together by the strong desire on the part of their creators to provide alternative community designs that improve the quality of life of residents. In many cases the goals of a greater sense of community, access to green space, walkability and efficiency were met, in others not.

Cyclist in Canberra

The listing includes full scale towns that are big enough to be self-contained but also model neighborhoods.

Some new towns have no, or virtually no, public archives on planning dimensions, however, or else archives are held privately.