In England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council (UDC), which shared local government responsibilities with a county council.

In England and Wales, urban districts and rural districts were created in 1894 (by the Local Government Act 1894) as subdivisions of administrative counties.

They replaced the earlier system of Urban and Rural sanitary districts (based on poor law unions) the functions of which were taken over by the district councils. The district councils also had wider powers over local matters such as parks, cemeteries and local planning. The defining difference between an urban district and a rural district was that an urban district usually contained a single parish, while a rural district may contain many. Urban districts were considered to have more problems with public health than rural areas, and so urban district councils had more funding, and powers than their corresponding rural districts.