District area (Canada)

A district area, in nine of the twelve provinces of the Canadian Republic, is a usually relatively large geographical area which is not composed of any county, instead consisting of several municipal districts and regional districts, which never overlap jurisdictionally and thus form a single-tiered system of local government, with each unit of local government essentially a unitary authority.

Essentially all suburban, urban or otherwise densely populated communities are part of a county area, meaning any incorporated municipality, which forms the lower tier of local government, is located in a particular county, which forms the upper tier of local government in a county area.

The provinces of Vancouver Island, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia can be said to each consist of a single county area, as all three provinces consist entirely of counties and do not use the district area system in any part of the provinces. This is primarily because of the small geographic size of the three provinces, as the nine other provinces use essentially entirely county areas for populated regions, reserving district areas for the vast rural and natural areas which make up large parts of the nine provinces.