District and city heads in North Rhine-Westphalia
District and city heads in North Rhine-Westphalia stood at 54 persons in 2025, according to Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) – Digital Gender Equality Atlas. It is one of the indicators in the Women and men in politics and administration table (Value · Annual), with a complete series running from 2008 to 2025. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Women and men in politics and administration table
| Indicator | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2017 | 2015 | 2011 | 2008 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total2 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | |
| Women | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |
| Men | 49 | 48 | 48 | 47 | 47 | 52 | 52 | 52 | 50 | 48 |
Understanding district and city heads in North Rhine-Westphalia
Aggregating all chief executives who head district administrations and independent cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, this series establishes the statewide administrative baseline. The measure encompasses every active district administrator and lord mayor holding office on the annual reference date, without distinction by gender. Lower-tier municipal mayors, administrative deputies, heads of municipal divisions, and members of district or city councils are excluded from the scope. Serving as the master total for the North Rhine-Westphalia section of the table, this headcount provides the denominator for computing the corresponding gender proportions and equals the sum of the male and female headcount rows.
Because the institutional structure of local administration is defined by state legislation, this aggregate figure exhibits high stability over time. Changes between annual reporting points are infrequent and typically signal either a statutory reorganisation of administrative districts or a temporary vacancy where an office was unoccupied on the census date. As an annual inventory of legal mandates, the data contains no seasonal component, and retrospective revisions are virtually non-existent. When evaluating long-term trends, analysts should treat territorial amalgamations as structural breaks in institutional capacity rather than as shifts in the demographic characteristics of officeholders.
Frequently asked questions
- Which leadership posts are included in this total headcount for North Rhine-Westphalia?
- The series counts active district administrators and lord mayors of independent cities, excluding sub-district municipal leadership.
- What accounts for occasional changes in this total number?
- Adjustments occur when territorial administrative reorganisations alter the number of districts or when an executive office is temporarily vacant.
- How does this series relate to the gender rows for North Rhine-Westphalia?
- This headcount is the sum of the male and female officeholder series and provides the base figure for calculating gender shares.