Districts of the Arab Union

In the Union of Arab Republics (UAR; informally the Arab Union), a district (Arabic: منطقة minṭaqah, plur. مناطق manāṭiq) is an intermediary administrative division, between the republics (federated states) and council areas (local government areas). Each republic is divided into a number of districts (10 to 33), with each district encompassing multiple municipalities. Districts are the only administrative level without a complimentary government, in contrast to the council areas which, beyond simply forming the lowest administrative level, are full fledged corporate entities, governed by an elected council responsible for public administration and provision of services at the local level.

Districts are created by the governorate (state government) of a particular republic, and used primarily to more effectively organise the regionalisation of public administration and other governorate services and responsibilities, for which special purpose districts do not exist. For example, each governorate has a Ministry of Infrastructure which, among other responsibilities, handles the planning, development and maintenance of numbered expressways, motorways, rural routes and arterial roads (all roadways not maintained by a council); typically, each district is assigned its own engineering division, responsible for maintenance of existing and construction of new routes within the district. Similarly, districts are used by Union Post to organise the national-regional-local legs of delivery, with a district sorting centre receiving mail from the regional sorting centre in the republic's capital, then directing said mail to the correct local post office; as the country's seven-digit postcode format indicates republic via initial two digits and district via third and fourth digits, all councils in a district thus share the same initial four digits in their postcode, with few exceptions.

Governorates can create, merge, alter or abolish districts at their discretion, with boundaries and number of districts thus subject to change over time. While ideally encompassing similar population sizes, district planning is influenced at least as much natural and human geography, resulting in a somewhat broad range of extent, population size and density among districts. District boundaries always conform with council boundaries, with all council areas located in precisely one district. While most districts are covered entirely by council areas, several rural districts contain unincorporated areas, ie. land which does not come under the jurisdiction of any local council; all permanently inhabited communities, however, either form part of or constitute their own separate council.