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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions of municipalities, school district, or political district.

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Municipal utility district

A municipal utility district is a special-purpose district or other jurisdiction that provides services (such as electricity, natural gas, sewage treatment, waste collection/management, wholesale telecommunications, water) to district residents. Local residents may vote to establish a municipal utility district, which is represented by a board of directors elected by constituents.[1][2][3][4] As governmental bodies, they are usually nonprofit.

In the US, public utility districts (PUD) have similar functions to Municipal utility districts, but are created by a local government body such as a city or county, and have no authority to levy taxes. They provide public utilities to the residents of that district.[5]

PUDs are created by a local government body, such as a city, county, or metropolitan service area (two or more communities joining together for public utility purposes). Normally the districts are non-profit.[6] PUDs are often governed by a commission, which may be appointed or elected.

By country/region


In Afghanistan, a district (Persian / Pashto: ولسوالۍWuleswali) is a subdivision of a province. There are almost 400 districts in the country.




In Austria, the word Bezirk is used with different meanings in three different contexts:

  • Some of the tasks of the administrative branch of the national and regional governments are fulfilled by the 95 district administrative offices (Bezirkshauptmannschaften). The area a district administrative office is responsible for is often, although informally, called a district (Bezirk). A number of statutory cities, currently 15, are not served by any district administrative office. Their respective municipal bureaucracies handle the tasks normally performed by the district administrative office.
  • The cities of Vienna and Graz are divided into municipal districts (Stadtbezirke), assisting the respective municipal governments. In Vienna, the constituents of each district elect a district council (Bezirksvertretung); the district council in turn elects a district chairperson (Bezirksvorsteher). Although the city vests its districts with a limited amount of budgetary autonomy, district councils and chairpersons have little real responsibility. In particular, they do not legislate. Most of the districts of Vienna were independent municipalities at some point; district councils and chairpersons symbolize the town councils and mayors they used to have.
  • From the point of view of the judiciary of Austria, the country is subdivided into 115 judicial districts (Gerichtsbezirke), each corresponding to one of the country's 115 lowest-level trial courts.








Bhutanese districts (dzongkhag) are local administrative units consisting of village blocks called gewog. Some have subdistricts called dungkhag.

 Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a district is a self-governing administrative unit.

Brčko District

Brčko District in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina is formally part of both the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Assembly of the Brčko District has 29 seats.


Brazilian municipalities are subdivided into districts. Small municipalities usually have only one urban district, which contains the city itself, consisting of the seat of the local government, where the municipality's prefeitura and câmara de vereadores (City Hall and City Council, respectively, the Executive and Legislative local bodies) are located. The rural districts and groups of urban districts (mainly in large cities) may also present a sub local Executive body, named subprefeitura.


A district is known locally as daerah and it is the first-level administrative division of Brunei. There are four districts in the country, namely Brunei-Muara, Tutong, Belait and Temburong. Each district is administered by a Jabatan Daerah (District Office), which is headed by a Pegawai Daerah (District Officer). All district offices are government departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs (Malay: Kementerian Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri).



In Alberta, the municipal districts and improvement districts are types of rural municipalities.[7] They are recognized as census subdivisions by Statistics Canada,[8] which form parts of census divisions.

British Columbia

In the province of British Columbia, there are several kinds of administrative districts by that name. The usual usage is a reference to district municipalities, which are a class of municipality in the same hierarchy as city, town, or village. Most are styled, e.g., "District of Mission" or "District of Wells", though some are styled, e.g., "Corporation of Delta" or "Township of Langley".

Within the area of municipal powers, regional districts – which are somewhat analogous to counties in other jurisdictions, a number of municipalities, and unincorporated areas – are always referred to as "regional districts" to distinguish them from district municipalities and other kinds of district.

Other kinds of districts in British Columbia are:

New Brunswick

New Brunswick has numerous local service districts, 7 school districts, 10 federal electoral districts and 55 provincial electoral districts.




Northwest Territories

In western and northern Canada, the federal government created districts as subdivisions of the Northwest Territories 1870–1905, partly on the model of the districts created in the Province of Canada[9][citation needed]. The first district created was the District of Keewatin in 1876 followed by four more districts in 1882. Gradually, these districts became separate territories (such as Yukon), separate provinces (such as Alberta and Saskatchewan) or were absorbed into other provinces.







 Hong Kong




In Colombia, a district is one of ten special administrative units:

  • Barranquilla (Special Industrial Port District)
  • Cartagena Tourism and Cultural District
  • Bogotá (Capital District)
  • Santa Marta (Historical, Tourism and Cultural District)
  • Tunja (Historical and Cultural District)
  • Popayán (Special, Ecotouristic, Historical and Universitarian District)
  • Turbo (Special Port District)
  • Tumaco (Special Industrial, Port, Biodiverse and Ecotouristic District)
  • Cúcuta (Special Border and Touristic District)
  • Buenaventura (Special Industrial, Port, Biodiverse and Ecotouristic District)

 Czech Republic

A "district" in the Czech Republic is an okres (plural okresy). After a reform in 2002, the districts lost administrative power to regions (kraje) and selected towns (pověřené obce) and became statistical zones.


French districts were the first subdivision of the départements from the 4 March 1790 to the 28 pluviôse an VIII (17 February 1800). Then, in the 20th century, districts were a type of intercommunity, they've been replaced by communauté de communes and communautés d'agglomération after 1999.


  • In Germany, a district ("Kreis") is an administrative unit between the "Länder" (German federal states) and the local / municipal levels (Gemeinden). As of 2011, most of the 402 German districts are "Landkreise", rural districts. 107 larger cities (usually with more than 100,000 inhabitants) that do not belong to a district are considered as urban districts ("Kreisfreie Städte" or "Stadtkreise").
    • A local subdistrict is called a Gemarkung, and is mostly a smaller rural area (with similar concepts in Austria and Switzerland). A Gemarkung is usually associated with and named after a central town or village. Areas in such subdistricts and their usage are documented in central registries (German: Kataster) and have been historically used for taxation.
  • District (Bezirk) was also an administrative subdivision of the German Democratic Republic from 1952. See Administrative division of the German Democratic Republic
  • City district (Stadtbezirk or Ortsbezirk) is the primary subdivision category of many Kreisfreie Städte.


175 districts were established on January 1, 2013. The existing 19 counties are subdivided into 6–18 districts per county. The capital city of Budapest does not belong to any counties and is already divided to 23 districts.


Districts of India
Districts of India

India's districts (Assamese: জিলা; Bengali (জেলা); Gujarati (જિલ્લો); Hindi: (ज़िला) [zɪla] or (जनपद) [dʒənpəd]; Kannada: ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ (jille); Malayalam: ജില്ല(jilla); Punjabi: ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾ; mavattam Tamil: மாவட்டம்;Telugu: జిల్లా;) are local administrative units inherited from the British Raj. They generally form the tier of local government immediately below that of India's subnational states and territories. Where warranted, districts may further be grouped into administrative divisions, which form an intermediate level between the district and the subnational state (or union territory).

A district is headed by a Deputy Commissioner/ Collector, who is responsible for the overall administration and the maintenance of law and order. The district collector may belong to IAS (Indian Administrative Service). Other key responsibilities include the collection of revenue, and criminal prosecution in the district and sessional courts. Usually, the Deputy Commissioner/District Collector is granted magisterial powers under section 20 of Criminal Procedure Code, and designated as the District Magistrate. The official designations are "Collector and District Magistrate" or "Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate".


A district in South India
A district in South India

As of April 2016, the National Informatics Centre of the Government of India, lists a total of 664 districts in India, more than the number of parliamentary constituencies (545).[10] This number went up to a total of 723 districts in 2019.[11]

District revenue administration in A.P.

  1. District headed by collector

In Uttar Pradesh Districts and tahsils are defined in U.P. Land Revenue Act, 1901.

Panchayati Raj

Tiers of administration

  1. Grama panchayath: sarpanch
  2. Village clusters: M.P.T.C.
  3. Mandal/Taluk: M.P.P./Z.P.T.C.
  4. District: Z.P. Chairperson.


In Papua and West Papua, two of the 34 provinces of Indonesia, a distrik is a subdivision of a regency or a city. Formerly it was called a kecamatan. In translations of most official documents, kecamatan itself is translated into English as "district", but some other documents (especially from older era) translated it to "subdistrict", which is equivalent to a kelurahan in recent translations. This translation ambiguity has caused confusions among foreigners. Distrik or kecamatan do not have legal autonomy to govern themselves, because they are only administrative extensions of a regency or a city.


Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces (Persian: استان Ostān), each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: Markaz) of that province. The provinces of Iran further subdivided into counties called shahrestan (Persian: شهرستانshahrestān), an area inside an ostan, and consists of a city center, few bakhsh (Persian: بخشbakhsh) and many villages around them. There are usually a few cities (Persian: شهرshahr) and rural agglomerations (Persian: دهستانdehestān) in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county. The world Shahrestan comes from the Persian words shahr and ostan, which mean city (or town) and province, respectively. The nearest equivalent of Shahrestan in English would be sub-province or county. Each Shahrestan has a governmental office known as Farmandari which coordinates different events and governmental offices. The Farmandar, or the head of Farmandari, is the governor of the Shahrestan which is the highest governmental authority in the division.







 South Korea



The Districts of the Republic of Mauritius are the second-order administrative divisions after the Outer islands of the country. Mauritius is divided into nine districts which consist of 2 cities, 4 towns and 130 villages, the capital is Port Louis.

The island of Rodrigues used to be the tenth district of Mauritius but it gained autonomous status in 2002.





In Malaysia, each district will have a District Office, headed by a district officer, and is administered by a local government either being a District Council, Municipal Council, or a City Council. In some highly urbanized districts, there may be further subdivisions. For example, the district of Petaling in Selangor is administered by 3 local governments: Shah Alam City Council, Petaling Jaya City Council, and Subang Jaya Municipal Council. Another example is the district of Johor Bahru in Johor, which has 3 subdivisions: Johor Bahru City Council, Iskandar Puteri City Council, and Pasir Gudang Municipal Council. Conversely, there may be one local government administering more than one district, for example, Seberang Perai Municipal Council administers the districts of Central Seberang Perai, North Seberang Perai, and South Seberang Perai.

An administrative district border and an electoral district border (constituency) transcend each other and do not correspond with each other in most instances.




Nepal is divided into 77 districts. Each district acts as an independent administrative unit. A district consists two types of units like Rural Municipalities and Municipalities. Official documents like citizenship cards and passports are issued by the Chief of District Office (CDO). Constituencies for elections are also constructed according to the population distribution within the district.

 New Zealand

A district in New Zealand is a territorial authority (second-tier local government unit) that has not gained the distinction of being proclaimed a city. Districts tend to be less urbanized, tend to cover more than one population center and a larger amount of rural area, and tend to have a smaller population than cities. While cities and districts are generally considered to be two different types of territorial authority, the area covered by a city is often known as its district—for example the term district plan is used equally in districts and cities. The Chatham Islands Territory is neither a district nor a city.

A district is not always a simple division of a region: several districts lie within two regions, and the Taupo District lies in four.

 Northern Cyprus



Pakistan's districts are local administrative units inherited from the British Raj. Districts were generally grouped into administrative divisions, which in turn formed provinces. Pakistan has 130 districts (including ten in Azad Jammu and Kashmir). They comprise villages, towns and cities. A district is headed by a district nazim (mayor), who is an elected official and the local controller of the district level officers of all the departments under provincial government while Deputy Commissioner is executive head of the District usually Grade-18 officer from Pakistan Administrative Service.Deputy Commissioner is entrusted with overall responsibility of law & order, implementation of government schemes and is also authorised to hear revenue cases pertaining to the district. The district mayor(nazim) heads an elected district council composed of councilors, who represent various district-level constituencies. The councils have a constitutional requirement to be composed of a minimum of 33% women; there is no upper limit, so women can comprise 100% of these councils but men cannot.






A constituency with a representative in the lower house of Congress is a congressional district. However, the term congressional district has become synonymous in local parlance with 'representative district,' because, just like in the US, the word 'congress' (konggreso) has come to refer specifically to the lower house (the House of Representatives).


Each province is guaranteed at least one representative to the lower house, even though it may not come close to having the same population as other legislative districts. Only voters within each district are allowed to vote in the election for the member of the House of Representatives from that district.

From 1916 to 1935, the Philippines were divided into 12 senatorial districts, of which 11 elected two members each, for a total of 22 out of the 24 members of the upper house of Congress (the Senate). Since 1935 senators have been elected at-large.











During Spanish and early American colonial rule, certain areas of the Philippines were designated as 'districts,' mainly those that had not been formally organized into provinces or incorporated into existing ones. In the American era, cities and municipalities were divided into city and municipal districts, which served as the lowest level of government before the creation of the barangay.

Special-purpose districts


Informal districts





Districts (distritos) are administrative divisions of Portugal. They were mainly used as the jurisdiction areas for the civil governors, the government officials that represented locally the Central Government. However, in 2011, the role of civil governor was de facto extinct (although not de jure), with the decision taken by the Government not to appoint new civil governors and to transfer its functions to other bodies. The district areas are now only used as the regional jurisdiction areas of some public bodies (like the Public Security Police district commands) and some private entities (like the district associations and championships of football).


In Russia, districts are administrative and municipal divisions of the federal subjects, as well as administrative divisions of larger cities ("city districts") which are commonly referenced as raions (Russian: Районы) and okrugs (Russian: Округа) respectively. The term "district" is also used to refer to the type of administrative division of the Sakha Republiculus (Russian: улус; Yakut: улуус). The Sakha Republic is administratively divided into five cities under the Republic's jurisdiction and 33 uluses. The law of the Sakha Republic establishes that the terms "ulus" and "district" are equivalent.[12]







 South Africa

Districts of South Africa
Districts of South Africa


This structure varies in the eight largest urban areas:

  1. Bloemfontein (seat of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality),
  2. Cape Town (City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality),
  3. Durban (seat of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality),
  4. East London / King Williams Town (seat of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality),
  5. East Rand (seat of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality),
  6. Johannesburg (City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality),
  7. Port Elizabeth incl. Uitenhage (seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality) and
  8. Pretoria (seat of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality),

where a metropolitan municipality replaces both a district and a local municipality.

 Sri Lanka




In Switzerland, some cantons organize themselves into districts, while others dispense with districts and govern themselves at the Wahlkreise (constituency or electoral district) level.


Some municipalities in the Kingdom of Sweden have divided their territory into smaller areas, which often are assigned an administrative board responsible for certain elements of municipal governance within their district. These areas take a variety of different Swedish names; however "district" is usually the official English term for them. The term "borough" is sometimes used in unofficial contexts.


In the Republic of China, district (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is the 3rd level of the administrative division. It is a division of special municipality and provincial city of Taiwan Province. Currently, there are 157 districts in total from 5 special municipalities and 3 provincial cities.


A district ("amphoe") is a subdivision of a province ("changwat") in Thailand. Some provinces also contain minor districts ("กิ่งอำเภอ")(th:กิ่งอำเภอ), which are smaller than the average district.





In Ukraine, districts (raions) second level of administrative division of Ukraine and are primary the most common division of Ukrainian regions, as well as administrative divisions of larger cities ("city districts").

 United Kingdom





There is no official use of the word district in Wales. The country is broken up into 22 unitary authorities. However, district may be used informally for a whole or unofficial part of a ward in a city.


Districts of Scotland were local government areas between 1975 and 1996.

Between 1930 and 1975 districts were subdivisions of counties, formed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929. See List of local government areas in Scotland 1930–75. Scotland, since 1996, has been divided in 32 unitary council areas and districts are no longer used.

Scotland has had other kinds of administrative areas which might be described as districts:

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is divided into 11 districts for local government purposes. The councils do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom; for example they have no responsibility for education, road-building or housing (although they do nominate members to the advisory Northern Ireland Housing Council).


 United States

Satellite photograph of the District of Columbia.
Satellite photograph of the District of Columbia.

There are several types of districts in the United States.

Federal District


Legislative constituencies



City councils that are not elected at-large may have constituencies called districts or wards.

Single Purpose Districts

The United States also has many types of special-purpose districts with limited powers of local government. School districts are the most common, but other types of districts include community college districts, hospital districts, utility districts, irrigation districts, port districts, and public transit districts.

Many cities in the late 20th century adopted names for non-governmental districts as a way of increasing recognition and identity of these distinct areas and neighborhoods. Perhaps most apparently in Los Angeles, various areas and neighborhoods within the city are specified as districts. For instance, Hollywood is a district of Los Angeles, whereas Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are independent incorporated cities, with their own governments and police departments. This can be confusing, as the difference between districts and neighboring cities is usually not readily apparent, for they all make up the greater Los Angeles area. Typically, districts may or may not be distinguished at the boundary of the district with a "district sign" with the city's insignia; whereas at a city boundary, a city limit sign would usually be placed on the street with the city's name and population, at a minimum, but also often includes its elevation. The important distinction is that areas classified as districts are still part of the parent city and governed by the laws and ordinances of that city.



From the late 18th century until the Philadelphia Act of Consolidation in 1854, districts were politically independent municipalities made up of densely populated neighborhoods adjacent to but outside the legal boundaries of the City of Philadelphia. Northern Liberties, Southwark, and Spring Garden were among the ten largest municipalities by population in the United States.


The term district in Vietnam refers to the second level administrative unit, below provinces (tỉnh) and centrally administered cities (thành phố trực thuộc trung ương). This second level unit is called a "huyện" in rural areas, while in urban areas districts are either "quận" (sub-divisions of centrally administered cities), "Thành phố trực thuộc tỉnh" (provincial cities) or "thị xã" (towns). As of 28 November 2011, Vietnam had 698 "districts" including 55 provincial cities, 47 towns, 47 urban sub-divisions, and 549 rural districts (including 12 island districts).[13]

Vietnamese districts vary significantly in both population and area. Excluding the island districts, the most populous is Biên Hoà (provincial city) with 784,398 people; the least populous is the town of Mường Lay (11,650). Similarly, the largest district is Mường Tè (3,677.4 km²) while the smallest is District ("Quận") 4 of Hồ Chí Minh City with an area of only 4.18 km².[13]

See also


  1. ^ McGlinchy, Audrey. "Everything You Wanted To Know About MUDs But Were Too Afraid To Ask". KUT News. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  2. ^ "What You Need To Know About Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs)". JB Goodwin. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  3. ^ "What is municipal utility district (MUD)? definition and meaning". Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  4. ^ "What is MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT (MUD)? definition of MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT (MUD)". Black's Law Dictionary. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  5. ^ "About Us". Cypress Forest Public Utility. Cypress Forest Public Utility. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  6. ^ Slechta, Alfred F., and Gordon L. Culp. "Water reclamation studies at the South Tahoe public utility district." Journal (Water Pollution Control Federation) (1967): 787-814.
  7. ^ "Types of Municipalities in Alberta". Alberta Municipal Affairs. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Interim List of Changes to Municipal Boundaries, Status, and Names: From January 2, 2012 to January 1, 2012" (PDF). Statistics Canada. 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  9. ^ Careless, James Maurice Stockford. "Province of Canada 1841-67". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  10. ^ "list of districts of India by states". Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  11. ^ "Districts | Government of India Web Directory". Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  12. ^ Law Z#77-I of 6 July 1995 "On Administrative and Territorial Structure of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic", with amendments
  13. ^ a b vi:Huyện (Việt Nam)
This page was last edited on 17 December 2019, at 05:45