''Circoscrizione'' (; plural: ''circoscrizioni'') can refer to two different administrative units of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. One is an electoral district approximating to the English ''
constituency'' but typically the size of a province or region, depending on the election. The other is a subdivision of city ''
comuni'' roughly equivalent to the
municipal arrondissements of Paris or the
London borough
The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at t ...
s.
Electoral district
For Senate elections, there are 20 ''circoscrizioni'' corresponding to the
regions of Italy
The regions of Italy ( it, regioni d'Italia) are the first-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, five of which have higher autonomy than the rest. U ...
.
For elections to the Chamber of Deputies, some of the regions are split in two, and Lombardy in three, to make 26 ''circoscrizioni''.
For elections to the European Parliament, Italy is split into 5 ''circoscrizioni'', typically of 4–5 regions joined.
Until the electoral reforms in 2005, ''circoscrizioni'' for national elections were divided into ''collegi uninominali'' which elected one deputy or Senator and thus were directly equivalent to a constituency in the British sense.
Municipal district
District councils started to appear in the 1960s, but municipal ''circoscrizioni'' were formally recognised in law in 1976, and their powers extended in 1990. From 2010 they are allowed only in cities with a population of at least 250,000. Each ''circoscrizione'' now need to have at least 30,000 residents, and typically corresponds to historic divisions of a city, but could contain multiple ''frazioni'', ''località'' or ''quartieri''.
The ''comune'' delegates functions to the ''circoscrizioni''. These vary from city to city, but may include schools, social services and waste collection.
See also
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Contrade
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Frazione
A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...
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Località
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Rione
A (; plural: ) is a neighbourhood in several Italian cities. A is a territorial subdivision. The larger administrative subdivisions in Rome are the , with the being used only in the historic centre. The word derives from the Latin , the 14 su ...
**
Rioni of Rome
A rione of Rome (, pl. ''rioni'') is a traditional administrative division of the city of Rome. " Rione" is an Italian term used since the 14th century to name a district of a town. The term was born in Rome, originating from the administrative di ...
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Quartiere
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Sestiere
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Terziere
{{Coord missing, Italy
Subdivisions of Italy
de:Bezirk#Stadtbezirk