Rural and urban districts

The electoral area is the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. In contrast to Bundestag elections, there are no constituencies in European Parliament elections. In accordance with the European Elections Act, district and town returning officers have to be appointed in the rural districts and towns not attached to an administrative district (“urban districts”) only for organisational reasons, for instance to establish the election results. Consequently, it is not possible in European elections to submit nominations of candidates at constituency level. The rural and urban districts as such have no bearing upon the way in which the European Parliament is composed of members.

According to the official List of Municipalities of the Federal Statistical Office, there currently are 294 rural districts and 106 urban districts in the Federal Republic of Germany.

On the internet and in the relevant publications, the Federal Returning Officer provides data and results of the European Parliament election from this administrative level. The numbers assigned to the rural and urban districts are the five-digit codes of the official List of Municipalities.

Map of districts

© GeoBasis-DE / BKG 2022

Maps and geometric data for further use in geographical information systems can be obtained in various formats from the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy and the Service Centre of the Federal Government for Geo-Information and Geodesy.

For data on the rural and urban districts and the municipalities assigned to these districts please refer to the List of Municipalities of the Federal Statistical Office.