District Council Act

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.

By country/region

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, a district (Persian ps, ولسوالۍ ) 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 ( nl, districten).

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.

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.

Mi'kma'ki

Situated across the Atlantic provinces and the Maritimes, the traditional country of the Mi'kmaw Nation organizes itself into historically 7 or 8 districts. These districts are Epekwitk & Piktuk, Eske'kewa'ki, Kespe'kewa'ki, Kespukwitk, Sikniktewa'ki, their central fire or capital district Unama'ki, and Ktaqamkuk. Although Canada and the provinces hardly recognize the legitimacy of Mi'kma'ki, the nation remains and still retains functions as a Wabanaki country.

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 178

Districts continued to operation until 1849 when they were replaced by counties by the Province of Canada.

The current Ontario districts such as Algoma District, Ontario, 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

Mainland China

In mainland China, the district () is a subdivision of any of various city administrative units, including municipalities, sub-provincial cities, 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:

Czech Republic

A "district" in the Czech Republic 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 the 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 .

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is divided into eighteen districts, each with a district council.

Hungary

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.

India

India's districts 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".

Districts are most frequently further sub-divided into smaller administrative units, called either or or , depending on the region. These units have specific local responsibilities, including in particular coordinating revenue collection.
An intermediate level (the sub-division) between district and tehsil/taluka may be formed by grouping these units under the oversight of Assistant Commissioners or sub-collectors. Each district includes one or two cities (or large towns), a few smaller towns and dozens of villages. Most of the Indian districts have the same name as their main town or city.

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). This number went up to a total of 723 districts in 2019.

District revenue administration in A.P.

# District headed by collector
# A district is composed of four or five revenue divisions administered by R.D.O./sub collector,
# Revenue Divisions divided into taluks/mandals headed by tahsildars,
# Mandals composed of a ten or more villages administered by village revenue officers and village servants.
In Uttar Pradesh Districts and tahsils are defined in U.P. Land Revenue Act, 1901.

Panchayati Raj

Tiers of administration
# Grama panchayath: sarpanch
# Village clusters: M.P.T.C.
# Mandal/Taluk: M.P.P./Z.P.T.C.
# District: Z.P. Chairperson.

Indonesia

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

Iran

Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces (Persian: ), each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: ) of that province. The provinces of Iran further subdivided into counties called ( fa, شهرستان ), an area inside an , and consists of a city center, few ( fa, بخش) and many villages around them. There are usually a few cities ( fa, شهر ) and rural agglomerations ( fa, دهستان ) 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 word comes from the Persian words and , which mean ''city'' (or ''town'') and ''province'', respectively. The nearest equivalent of in English would be sub-province or county. Each has a governmental office known as which coordinates different events and governmental offices. The , or the head of , is the governor of the which is the highest governmental authority in the division.

Iraq

In Iraq, they use the word for districts. There are over a hundred districts, each district being within one of 18 Iraqi governorates, sometimes known as provinces. The district generally (but not always) bears the name of a city within that district, usually the capital of that district.

Japan

A is a local administrative unit comprising towns and villages but not cities. See districts of Japan for a more complete description. In 1923, its administrative role was abolished although it is still in use for addressing purposes. "District" is also a translation of , defined by Japan's planning law.

Kenya

In Kenya, a district () is a subdivision of a Province and is headed by a District Officer (DO).

South Korea

A district () is a subdivision of larger cities in South Korea. Smaller cities have no districts, whereas districts in Seoul and six Metropolitan Cities are treated as a city in their own right.

Macau

Malawi

Malawi is divided into 28 districts within three regions. Each district is headed by a District Commissioner.

Mauritius

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.

Malaysia

A district is known as in Malay. A district governed directly by the federal government is known as a Federal Territory, and they are Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Labuan.

In Peninsular Malaysia, a district is a division of a state. A is a subdivision of a district. The , is however, of less importance with respect to the administration of local government.

In East Malaysia, a district is a subdivision within a division of a state. For example, Tuaran is a district within the West Coast Division of Sabah. A district is usually named after the main town or its administrative capital, for example, Sandakan town is the capital of the district of Sandakan, as well the capital of Sandakan Division. (Note: Sandakan district is a sub-division of Sandakan Division.)

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; as well as Kuala Terengganu City Council, which administers the districts of Kuala Terengganu and Kuala Nerus.

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

Malta

Malta holds 13 Electoral Divisions for the unicameral (single-assembly) parliament. Each consists of a number of localities (although there is no requirement that electoral boundaries follow the boundaries of localities).

Nauru

The districts of Nauru are the only subdivisions of the whole state.

Nepal

Nepal is divided into 77 districts. Each district acts as an independent administrative unit. A district consists of 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

Norway

Pakistan

Districts of Pakistan are local administrative units inherited from the British Raj. They form third-level Administrative Division in Pakistan after Provinces and Divisions. Districts were generally grouped into administrative divisions, which in turn formed provinces. Pakistan has 160 districts (including ten in Azad Jammu and Kashmir). They are known as in Urdu