Administrative districts of Serbia

Administrative districts
Управни окрузи
Upravni okruzi
Map of present-day districts of Serbia
CategoryUnitary state
LocationSerbia
Created
  • 1992
Number24 (29 including Kosovo)
Populations77,341 (Toplica) – 607,178 (South Bačka)
Areas1,248 km2 (482 sq mi) (Podunavlje) – 6,140 km2 (2,370 sq mi) (Zlatibor)
Politics of Serbia
Constitution
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
Elections
Administrative divisions
Foreign relations
flag Serbia portal

The administrative districts (Serbian: управни окрузи, romanized: upravni okruzi) of Serbia are deconcentrated coordination units of the central government, established under the 2005 Law on State Administration and implemented through government decrees. They are not administrative divisions, as the administrative divisions of Serbia are constitutionally defined units of self-governance or autonomy, but rather regional operational centers serving ministerial field offices (such as branches of inspection authorities). Each has a territorial remit matching a certain cluster of municipalities and cities (which are constitutionally and statutorily defined administrative divisions).

Originally instituted by a 1992 government decree, there are 29 administrative districts, with the City of Belgrade having similar status.[1] Following the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, the districts created by the UNMIK-Administration were adopted by Kosovo. The Serbian government does not recognize these districts.

Territorially, an administrative district is merely a designation of the territorial remit of a given regional centre of state administration, through which the central government exercises its power within a hierarchical structure. In practical and organizational terms, administrative districts are often small field offices coordinating deconcentrated state functions with no independent decision-making authority. Each is headed by a government-appointed functionary-level official titled Head of the Administrative District.

The administrative districts are generally named after historical and geographical regions, though some, such as the Pčinja District and the Nišava District, are named after local rivers. Their areas and populations vary, ranging from the relatively-small Podunavlje District to the much larger Zlatibor District. The term okrug (pl. okruzi) means "circuit" and corresponds (in literal meaning) to bezirk in the German language. Prior to a 2006 decree, the administrative districts were named simply districts.

Definition

Administrative districts were first defined by the decree of the Government of Serbia on 29 January 1992, which specified that ministries and other national-level agencies shall conduct their affairs outside their headquarters (i.e. outside the seat of government) via regional offices that they may establish per the designated clusters of municipalities (named only "districts"), also designating the administrative seat of each district ("regional centre of state administration").[2] The 2005 Law on Public Administration provided a legal definition of a district, under the term "administrative district".[3]

An administrative district shall be established for the execution of state administration tasks outside the headquarters of the state administration authority.
...
The Government shall establish administrative districts by its regulation, by which it shall also determine areas and seats of administrative districts.

In 2006, the Government enacted the Decree on Administrative Districts, which renamed the districts into administrative districts.[4]

The territorial organisation of Serbia is regulated by the Law on Territorial Organisation, adopted by the National Assembly on 29 December 2007. According to the Law, the territorial organisation of Serbia comprises municipalities and cities, the City of Belgrade with special status, and autonomous provinces.[5][6] Not subject to this law, or even mentioned in it, administrative districts are not territorial organization units. Serbia's territory is not politically subdivided into them, and rather than being further divisible into municipalities, each overlaps with its corresponding cluster of municipalities. As such, administrative districts are not articulations of local governance or autonomy and are purely a mechanism of deconcentration (the weakest form of decentralization), remaining dependent on the central executive branch.[6][7]

As extensions of the central government that lack standalone institutional personality, administrative districts do not possess flags or coats of arms distinct from the national symbols of Serbia.[8]

List of districts

Under the Law on Public Administration, administrative districts are formed by the Government by its Decree on Administrative Districts, which also determines the territory and head office of each administrative district. There are 29 administrative districts in the Republic of Serbia.[9]

District Seat Area
in km2		 Population Population
per km2		 Municipalities and cities Settlements
Bor District
(Borski okrug)
 Bor 3,507 101,100 28.8 90
Braničevo District
(Braničevski okrug)
 Požarevac 3,865 156,367 40.5 189
Central Banat District
(Srednjobanatski okrug)
Zrenjanin 3,256 157,711 48.4 55
Jablanica District
(Jablanički okrug)
 Leskovac 2,769 184,502 66.6 336
Kolubara District
(Kolubarski okrug)
 Valjevo 2,474 154,497 62.4 218
Mačva District
(Mačvanski okrug)
 Šabac 3,268 265,377 81.2 228
Moravica District
(Moravički okrug)
 Čačak 3,016 189,281 62.8 206
Nišava District
(Nišavski okrug)
 Niš 2,729 343,950 126.0 285
North Bačka District
(Severnobački okrug)
 Subotica 1,784 160,163 89.8 45
North Banat District
(Severnobanatski okrug)
 Kikinda 2,329 117,896 50.6 50
Pčinja District
(Pčinjski okrug)
 Vranje 3,520 193,802 55.1 363
Pirot District
(Pirotski okrug)
 Pirot 2,761 76,700 27.8 214
Podunavlje District
(Podunavski okrug)
 Smederevo 1,248 175,573 140.7 58
Pomoravlje District
(Pomoravski okrug)
 Jagodina 2,614 182,047 69.6 191
Rasina District
(Rasinski okrug)
 Kruševac 2,667 207,197 77.7 296
Raška District
(Raški okrug)
 Kraljevo 3,918 296,532 75.7 359
South Bačka District
(Južnobački okrug)
 Novi Sad 4,016 607,178 151.2 77
South Banat District
(Južnobanatski okrug)
 Pančevo 4,245 260,244 61.3 94
Srem District
(Sremski okrug)
 Sremska Mitrovica 3,486 282,547 81.1 109
Šumadija District
(Šumadijski okrug)
 Kragujevac 2,387 269,728 113.0 174
Toplica District
(Toplički okrug)
 Prokuplje 2,231 77,341 34.7 267
West Bačka District
(Zapadnobački okrug)
 Sombor 2,420 154,491 63.8 37
Zaječar District
(Zaječarski okrug)
 Zaječar 3,623 96,715 26.7 173
Zlatibor District
(Zlatiborski okrug)
 Užice 6,140 254,659 41.5 438
Kosovo District[a]
(Kosovski okrug)
 Priština 3,310 570,835 172.5
Kosovo-Pomoravlje District[a]
(Kosovsko-pomoravski okrug)
 Gnjilane 1,389 184,864 133.1
Kosovska Mitrovica District[a]
(Kosovsko-mitrovački okrug)
 Kosovska Mitrovica 2,053 234,262 114.1
Peć District[a]
(Pećki okrug)
 Peć 2,459 351,680 143.2
Prizren District[a]
(Prizrenski okrug)
 Prizren 2,196 319,330 145.4

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Even though the Republic of Kosovo, as of February 17th 2008, has been an independent country, Serbian laws treat Kosovo as integral part of Serbia as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. The 1992 Decree defines five districts on the territory of Kosovo.[5] But, from 1999, following the Kosovo War, Kosovo was governed under the United Nations' administration of UNMIK. In 2000, the UNMIK administration changed the territorial organisation on the territory of Kosovo. All five districts were abolished, and seven new districts were created, which were later adopted by Kosovo after the 2008 declaration of Independence. The Serbian government does not recognize this move, and claims the pre-2000 five districts

References

  1. ^ "Facts about Serbia". Government of Serbia. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  2. ^ "Uredba o načinu vršenja poslova ministarstava i posebnih organizacija van njihovog sedišta" [Decree on the manner of carrying out the work of ministries and special organizations outside of their seat] (PDF). arhiva.drzavnauprava.gov.rs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-07-24. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  3. ^ "Law on State Administration" (PDF). Military Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-08-08. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  4. ^ "Uredba o upravnim okruzima — Викизворник". sr.wikisource.org (in Serbian (Latin script)). Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  5. ^ a b "Zakon o teritorijalnoj organizaciji Srbije" (in Serbian). Parliament of Serbia.
  6. ^ a b "Kakva lokalna samouprava postoji danas u Srbiji?" [What kind of local government exists in Serbia today?]. Naša Mesta (in Serbian). 31 August 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2025. Okruzi nemaju elemente samouprave niti autonomije, oni su područni centri državne uprave koji obuhvataju okružne područne jedinice svih organa državne uprave koje su obrazovane za njihovo područje. Upravni okruzi imaju načelnika, koji za svoj rad odgovara ministru nadležnom za poslove uprave i vladi. [Districts lack any elements of self-governance or autonomy. They function as regional administrative centres encompassing all of the public administration bodies' field offices that have been established within their territorial remit. Each administrative district is headed by a Head of the Administrative District, who reports directly to the Minister of Public Administration and the national government.]
  7. ^ Golić, Darko (2025). "The role of administrative districts in the administrative system of Serbia". Pravo - teorija i praksa. 42 (2): 16–17. doi:10.5937/ptp2502015G. ISSN 0352-3713. By nature administrative districts are a form of "pure deconcentration," and their significance primarily stems from the importance of the local units of state administration. Although the role of these local units is defined by the Law on State Administration (2005) with the possibility of expansion it is essential to bear in mind that the administrative district does not represent a separate level of government.
  8. ^ "Teritorijalna organizacija Srbije". Zastave i grbovi Srbije (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 22 January 2025. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Register of Administrative Districts". Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Districts of Serbia.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.