A municipal district is an administrative entity comprising a clearly defined territory and its population. It can refer to a city, town, village or a small grouping of them, or a rural area.
In Canada, municipal districts are a type of rural municipality within the Province of Alberta governed by elected councils with the mandate to administer rural areas that can include farmlands, resource areas and unincorporated hamlets and rural residential subdivisions.Statistics Canada recognizes Alberta's 64 municipal districts as a type of census subdivision for statistical purposes. Statistics Canada also refers to Nova Scotia's 12 district municipalities as municipal districts for census subdivision purposes. The City of Flin Flon in Manitoba also held a municipal district status between 1933 and 1946.
In the Dominican Republic, when a municipality consists of more than one urban center, those beside the municipalities seat can be elevated to the status of a municipal district (distrito municipal). A municipal council (Junta Municipal) for such a municipal district is nominated by the municipal council of the municipality to which it belongs (Ley 3455 Titulo I Capitulo IV).
In Ireland, the Local Government Reform Act 2014 brought in a system of municipal districts for local government purposes from 1 June 2014 following local elections in May, replacing town and borough councils. The districts are second-tier units below counties, with the exception of the Dublin Region and Cork and Galway cities which retained their existing local government structures. The districts act as constituencies for county councils, with councillors being simultaneously elected to both bodies. Some municipal districts are titled "borough districts" (Clonmel, Drogheda, Sligo and Wexford) or "metropolitan districts" (Limerick and Waterford), though they have no additional powers.