A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the 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.
Etymology The word "district" in English is a loan word from French. It comes from Medieval Latin districtus–"exercising of justice, restraining of offenders".
The earliest known English-language usage dates to 1611, in the work of lexicographer Randle Cotgrave.
By country or territory Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, a district (Persian ) is a subdivision of a province. There are almost 400 districts in the country.
Australia
Electoral districts are used in state elections. Districts were also used in several states as cadastral units for land titles. Some were used as squatting districts. New South Wales had several different types of districts used in the 21st century.
Austria
In Austria, the word 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 (). The area a district administrative office is responsible for is often, although informally, called a district (). 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 (), assisting the respective municipal governments. In Vienna, the constituents of each district elect a district council (); the district council in turn elects a district chairperson (). 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 (), each corresponding to one of the country's 115 lowest-level trial courts.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is administratively divided into the following subdivisions:
59 districts (; sing.– ), 11 cities (; sing.– ), 1 autonomous republic (), which itself contains: 7 districts 1 city
The rayons are further divided into municipalities ().
Additionally, Azerbaijan is subdivided into 9 (economic) regions (; sing.– ). This is not an administrative division. Each region contains a number of districts. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic forms a separate, 10th economic region.
1. Absheron 2. Ganja-Qazakh 3. Shaki-Zaqatala 4. Lankaran 5. Quba-Khachmaz 6. Aran 7. Upper Karabakh 8. Kalbajar-Lachin 9. Daglig-Shirvan 10. Nakhchivan
Bangladesh
Bangladeshi districts are local administrative units. In all, there are 64 districts in Bangladesh. Originally, there were 21 greater districts with several subdivisions in each district. In 1984, the government made all these subdivisions into districts. Each district has several sub-districts called Upazila in Bengali with a total 493 Upzillas.
Belgium
In Belgian municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, on the initiative of the local council, sub-municipal administrative entities with elected councils may be created. As such, only Antwerp, having over 460,000 inhabitants, became subdivided into nine districts ().
The Belgian arrondissements (also in French as well as in Dutch), an administrative level between province (or the capital region) and municipality, or the lowest judicial level, are in English, sometimes called districts as well.
Bhutan Bhutanese districts () are local administrative units consisting of village blocks called . Some have subdistricts called .
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.
Botswana
Districts are the first-level administrative divisions of Botswana, alongside town councils and city councils. Each of the ten districts have their own district councils.
Brazil 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 and (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 .
Brunei
A district is known locally as 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 (District Office), which is headed by a (District Officer). All district offices are government departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs ().
Canada Alberta In Alberta, the municipal districts and improvement districts are types of rural municipalities. They are recognized as census subdivisions by Statistics Canada, 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:
Electoral districts (some early ridings, as electoral districts are commonly known, included "district" in their title, e.g. New Westminster District) Forest districts, which are a set of administrative regions of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests Land districts, which are the underlying cadastral survey system for the province and are the primary locational reference used in government databases and references. The primary use of "district" in combinations such as the Lillooet District or New Westminster District was a reference to the land district, though sometimes to mining divisions. School districts, also often referred to simply as "districts", when in context. Other types of regional subdivision, according to the ministry or agency, are generally styled "region" or "area". These include as Ministry of Environment regions, health regions, and regional management planning areas such as the Muskwa-Kechika Management Planning Area.
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. 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.
Ontario In Ontario, a district is a statutory subdivision of the province, but, unlike a county, a district is not incorporated. Most districts are composed of unincorporated lands, mostly Crown land. Originally present-day Southern Ontario (then part of the Province of Quebec and after 1791, Upper Canada) was divided into districts in 1788 . Districts continued to operation until 1849 when they were replaced by counties by the Province of Canada.
The current Ontario districts such as Algoma and Nipissing were first created by the Province of Canada in 1858 prior to Confederation for the delivery of judicial and provincial government services to sparsely populated areas from the district seat (e.g. Sault Ste. Marie). Some districts may have District Social Service Administration Boards, which are designed to provide certain social services. The boundaries of a federal census division may correspond to those of a district.
Quebec In Quebec, districts are municipal electoral subdivisions of boroughs, which are subdivisions of cities. They function in a similar manner to what is elsewhere known as a ward.
Chile
China Hong Kong
Hong Kong is divided into eighteen districts, each with a district council.
Macao
Mainland China
On Mainland China, the district () is a subdivision of any of various city administrative units, including direct-administered municipalities, sub-provincial municipalities, and prefecture-level cities. Districts have county-level status.
Modern districts are a recent innovation. In the context of pre-modern China, the English translation "district" is typically associated with (), another Chinese administrative division. The is translated as "county" in the context of modern China.
Colombia In Colombia, a district is one of ten special administrative units:
Czechia A "district" in Czechia is an (plural ). After a reform in 2002, the districts lost administrative power to regions () and selected towns () and became statistical zones.
France French districts were the first subdivision of the from 4 March 1790 to the (17 February 1800). Then, in the 20th century, districts were a type of intercommunity, they've been replaced by and after 1999.
Germany
In Germany, a district () is an administrative unit between the (German federal states) and the local / municipal levels (Gemeinden). As of 2011, most of the 402 German districts are , rural districts. 107 larger cities (usually with more than 100,000 inhabitants) that do not belong to a district are considered as urban districts ( or ). A local subdistrict is called a , and is mostly a smaller rural area (with similar concepts in Austria and Switzerland). A 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: ) and have been historically used for taxation. In some states, there is additional level of administration between the and the called (government district). District () was also an administrative subdivision of the German Democratic Republic from 1952. See Administrative division of the German Democratic Republic City district ( or ) is the primary subdivision category of many .
Hungary 175 districts were established on 1 January 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.
India