| Districts of Austria | |
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 Austria's 94 current districts. Statutory cities darkened. | |
| Category | District |
| Location | Austria |
| Found in | States (Länder) |
| Number | 94 (as of 2022) |
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| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Austria |
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Wöginger • Rendi-Wagner • Kickl • Maurer • Meinl-Reisinger •
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A district (German: Bezirk) is a second-level division of the executive arm of the Austrian government. District offices are the primary point of contact between residents and the state for most acts of government that exceed municipal purview: marriage licenses, driver licenses, passports, assembly permits, hunting permits, or dealings with public health officers for example all involve interaction with the district administrative authority (Bezirksverwaltungsbehörde).
Austrian constitutional law distinguishes two types of district administrative authority:
- district commissions (Bezirkshauptmannschaften), district administrative authorities that exist as stand-alone bureaus;
- statutory cities (Städte mit eigenem Statut or Statutarstädte), cities that have been vested with district administration functions in addition to their municipal responsibilities, i.e. district administrative authorities that only exist as a secondary role filled by something that primarily is a city (marked in the table with an asterisk (*).
As of 2017[update], there are 94 districts, of which 79 are districts headed by district commissions and 15 are statutory cities. Many districts are geographically congruent with one of the country's 113 judicial venues.
Statutory cities are not usually referred to as "districts" outside government publications and the legal literature. For brevity, government agencies will sometimes use the term "rural districts" (Landbezirke) for districts headed by district commissions, although the expression does not appear in any law and many "rural districts" are not very rural.