Districts are administrative subdivisions of the

Republic of China (Taiwan) Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

's special municipalities of the second level and provincial cities of the third level formerly under its

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. There are two types of district in the administrative scheme. Ordinary districts are governed directly by the municipality/city government with district administrators appointed by the mayors to four-year terms. The mountain indigenous district is a

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

body with elected district chiefs as well as district council serving four-year terms.

History

The first administrative divisions entitled "districts" were established in the 1900s when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, nine (9) out of eleven (11) prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reform into provincial cities. These cities are Changhua,

Chiayi Chiayi (, Taigi POJ: ''Ka-gī''; ), officially known as Chiayi City, is a city located in the plains of southwestern Taiwan. Formerly called ''Kagee'' during the late Qing dynasty and ''Kagi'' during the Japanese era (), its historical name ...

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

, Kaohsiung, Keelung, Pingtung, Taichung,

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" for its over 200 years of his ...

and

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. The wards ( ''ku'') and towns ( ''machi'') under those cities were merged into larger districts. At the same time, the districts ( ''kun'') under

prefectures A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

also reformed as county-controlled districts. In August 1950, another administrative division reform was performed in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, the size of

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

shrink and all

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

are all directly administered by the county. County-controlled districts were all defunct in this reform. At the same time provincial cities including Changhua,

, Pingtung were downgraded to county-administered cities, districts of these cities were also defunct. This makes district the type of division exclusively under the five remaining provincial cities: Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung,

and

. When Taipei was promoted as a special municipality by the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

in 1967, several

surrounding the city were merged into Taipei City and were reorganized as its districts. Afterwards, through another reorganization in 1990, the 12 current districts were formed. In addition, Kaohsiung, the largest city in southern Taiwan, was promoted as a special municipality in 1979. Siaogang Township was also merged to

Siaogang District Siaogang District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a district of Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. Before the merging of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County in 2010, Siaogang was the southernmost district in Kaohsiung ...

. In December 2010, the four new special municipalities were established namely Kaohsiung,

New Taipei New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, b ...

, Taichung, and Tainan. Subsequently, all the county-administered cities and townships in Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei Counties were reformed as districts of the new Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan and New Taipei cities respectively. Their names, nevertheless, remained the same. The same thing happened to Taoyuan on 25 December 2014 where there are additional new 13 districts from the former county. These municipalities and provincial cities use district administrative centers for public affairs services to serve the residents of these districts. Also, the directors of these districts and administrative centers are appointed by the mayors, with four years per term. On 4 February 2014, six districts were reclassified as Special Municipal Mountain Indigenous District (; or shortened as Mountain Indigenous District ()): Wulai in New Taipei, Fuxing in Taoyuan, Heping in Taichung, along with Namasia, Maolin, and Taoyuan in Kaohsiung.

Districts in Taiwan

Districts by cities

In the Republic of China, districts are the only subdivisions of special municipalities and provincial cities in

Taiwan Province Taiwan Province (; PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a nominal administrative division of the Republic of China (ROC). Its definition has remained part of the Constitution of the Republic of China, but the province is no lo ...

. Currently, there are 164 districts and 6 mountain indigenous districts located in the special municipalities and the provincial cities.

List of Districts in Taiwan

Colors indicate the common language status of Hakka and

Formosan languages The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather nine separate subfamilies. The Taiwa ...

within each division.

History

Districts in Taiwan

Districts by cities

List of Districts in Taiwan

Former districts

District changes between 1945 and 1950

District reforms in Taipei

See also