The municipalities of Dutch Lower Saxony are the lowest form of local government in the Saxonian state of Dutch Lower Saxony, one level beneath the provinces. There are a total of 699 municipalities in the state. The entirety of the state is divided into municipalities, even uninhabited areas and bodies of water. This can in some occasions create the illusion that a municipality is very large, even though most of its territory consists of water or uninhabited nature.