Districts are administrative subdivisions of Taiwan's special municipalities of the second level and provincial cities of the third level formerly under its provinces. 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 mayors to four-year terms. The mountain indigenous district is a local government 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 World War II, nine out of eleven prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reformed into provincial cities. These were Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Keelung, Pingtung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei. The wards (区 ku) and towns (町 machi) under those cities were merged into larger districts. At the same time, the districts (郡 kun) under prefectures were also reformed as county-controlled districts. In August 1950, another administrative division reform was undertaken, leading to a reduction in the size of counties and all townships becoming directly administered by counties. County-controlled districts were all made defunct in this reform. At the same time, provincial cities including Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu, and Pingtung were downgraded to county-administered cities, of which certain districts also became defunct. This made districts a type of division exclusively under the five remaining provincial cities: Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei. When Taipei was promoted to a special municipality by the central government in 1967, several townships surrounding the city were merged into Taipei City and 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 to a special municipality in 1979. Siaogang Township was merged into Siaogang District. In December 2010, four new special municipalities were established, namely Kaohsiung, New Taipei, 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 was done to Taoyuan on 25 December 2014, with the addition of 13 new districts. These municipalities and provincial cities use "district administrative centers" to serve residents of these districts. 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" (, 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 Taiwan, districts are the only subdivisions of special municipalities and provincial cities. Currently, there are 164 districts and 6 mountain indigenous districts in the country.

List of districts in Taiwan

Colors indicate the common language status of Hakka and Formosan languages within each division.

Former districts

District changes between 1945 and 1950

District reforms in Taipei