Urban and rural districts were divisions of administrative counties in Ireland created in 1899.

In the Republic of Ireland, which had left the United Kingdom in 1922 as the Irish Free State, rural districts were abolished in the Irish Free State in 1925, except in County Dublin, where they were abolished in 1930.

These were abolished in turn in 2014, resulting in a single tier only of local government in the Republic of Ireland.

The Irish Free State established in 1922 (which became Ireland in 1937) continued the structure of local government which had been in place under United Kingdom law.

[2] The areas of former rural districts continue to be used to define electoral geography such as Dáil constituencies.