A municipal district (MD) is the most common form of all rural municipality statuses used in the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta's municipal districts, most of which are branded as a county (e.g. Yellowhead County, County of Newell, etc.), are predominantly rural areas that may include either farmland, Crown land or a combination of both depending on their geographic location. They may also include country residential subdivisions and unincorporated communities, some of which are recognized as hamlets by Alberta Municipal Affairs.
Municipal districts are created when predominantly rural areas with populations of at least 1,000 people, where a majority of their residential buildings are on parcels of land greater than 1,850 m2, apply to Alberta Municipal Affairs for municipal district status under the authority of the Municipal Government Act. Applications for municipal district status are approved via orders in council made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council under recommendation from the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
As of the 2011 Census, Alberta's then 64 municipal districts (Lac La Biche County has since then converted to a specialized municipality) had a cumulative population of 451,979 and an average population of 7,062. Alberta's most populous and least populated municipal districts are Rocky View County and the MD of Ranchland No. 66 with populations of 36,461 and 79 respectively.
437 elected officials (eight mayors, 56 reeves and 373 councillors) provide municipal district governance throughout the province. __TOC__
Branding An order in council to incorporate any municipality must give the municipality an official name. Of Alberta's 63 municipal districts, 16 still have municipal district in their official names, while 47 of them have branded themselves as a county in their official names. Twenty-five of Alberta's municipal districts retain a numerical designation (e.g. "No. 8") in their official names.
The use of the county term in the official names of 47 municipal districts (and three specialized municipalities) has partially led to a common belief that a county is its own separate municipal status type, which is not the case. The other major contributor to this common belief is that a county was formerly a municipal status type in Alberta prior to the County Act being repealed in the mid-1990s. Those municipalities that were once officially incorporated as counties were continued under the Municipal Government Act (MGA) as municipal districts and were permitted to retain the term county in their official names.
Municipal office locations More than half of the 63 municipal districts have their main administration offices, including council chambers, in a separate municipality such as a city, town, or village. This municipality (like all other cities, towns, and villages) is not part of the municipal district's jurisdiction. Nine municipal districts have their offices in a hamlet, which is part of the district's jurisdiction. They are Acadia (Acadia Valley), Bighorn (Exshaw), Birch Hills (Wanham), Clear Hills (Worsley), Cypress (Dunmore), Grande Prairie (Clairmont), Lac Ste. Anne (Sangudo), Opportunity (Wabasca), and Thorhild (Thorhild). One municipal district, Ranchland, has its offices in a provincial park, Chain Lakes Provincial Park. Thirteen municipal districts have their offices in their jurisdiction, outside the boundaries of a city, town, or village. They are Brazeau (Drayton Valley), Lacombe (between Gull Lake and Lacombe), Mountain View (Didsbury), Newell (Brooks), Northern Sunrise (Peace River), Paintearth (Castor), Parkland (Stony Plain), Peace (Berwyn), Red Deer (Red Deer), Saddle Hills (Spirit River), Wheatland (Strathmore), Willow Creek (Claresholm), and Woodlands (Whitecourt).
List The below table is a list of only those rural municipalities in Alberta that are incorporated as municipal districts.
Despite their names, Lac La Biche County, Mackenzie County, and Strathcona County are not listed because they are in fact incorporated as specialized municipalities, not municipal districts. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is likewise a specialized municipality and is thus not listed here. For more information on specialized municipalities, see List of specialized municipalities in Alberta.
Alberta's seven improvement districts and three special areas are also not listed because they are their own separate type of rural municipality and not subset types of the municipal district status. For more information on special areas, see Special Areas Board.
+ List of municipal districts in Alberta Municipal district (MD) Incorporationdate Censusdivision Councilsize 2021 Census of Population Population(2021) Population(2016) Change Landarea(km²) Populationdensity(/km²) AcadiaMD of Acadia No. 34 4 Athabasca County 13 Barrhead County of Barrhead No. 11 13 Beaver County 10 Big Lakes Big Lakes County 17 Bighorn MD of Bighorn No. 8 15 Birch Hills County 19 Bonnyville MD of Bonnyville No. 87 12 Brazeau County 11 Camrose County 10 Cardston County 3 Clear Hills County 17 Clearwater County 9 Cypress County 1 Fairview MD of Fairview No. 136 19 Flagstaff County 7 Foothills County 6 Forty Mile County of Forty Mile No. 8 1 Grande Prairie County of Grande Prairie No. 1 19 Greenview MD of Greenview No. 16 18 Kneehill County 5 Lac Ste. Anne County 13 Lacombe County 8 Lamont County 10 Leduc County 11 Lesser Slave River MD of Lesser Slave River No. 124 17 Lethbridge County 2 Minburn County of Minburn No. 27 10 Mountain View County 6 Newell County of Newell 2 Northern Lights County of Northern Lights 17 Northern Sunrise County 17 Opportunity MD of Opportunity No. 17 17 Paintearth County of Paintearth No. 18 7 Parkland County 11 Peace MD of Peace No. 135 19 Pincher Creek MD of Pincher Creek No. 9 3 Ponoka County 8 Provost MD of Provost No. 52 7 Ranchland MD of Ranchland No. 66 15 Red Deer County 8 Rocky View County 6 Saddle Hills County 19 Smoky Lake County 12 Smoky River MD of Smoky River No. 130 19 Spirit River MD of Spirit River No. 133 19 St. Paul County of St. Paul No. 19 12 Starland County 5 Stettler County of Stettler No. 6 7 Sturgeon County 11 Taber MD of Taber 2 Thorhild County 13 Two Hills County of Two Hills No. 21 10 Vermilion River County of Vermilion River 10 Vulcan County 5 Wainwright MD of Wainwright No. 61 7 Warner County of Warner No. 5 2 Westlock County 13 Wetaskiwin County of Wetaskiwin No. 10 11 Wheatland County 5 Willow Creek MD of Willow Creek No. 26 3 Woodlands County 13 Yellowhead County 14 Total municipal districts — —
Former municipal districts
Changed status NameEarlier name(s) Incorporation date(municipal district) Status change date Subsequent municipal status Lac La Biche County Specialized municipality Mackenzie CountyMD of Mackenzie No. 23 Specialized municipality Strathcona CountyCounty of Strathcona No. 20MD of Strathcona No. 83MD of Strathcona No. 517 Specialized municipality
Dissolved