The Districts of Hong Kong are the 18 political areas by which Hong Kong is geographically divided. Each district has a district council, formerly district boards, for which the districts were established in 1982, when Hong Kong was under British rule. However, the districts have limited relevance to the population, as few public services operate according to district boundaries. The police, fire services, health services and hospital authority, and postal service each define their own idiosyncratic geographic divisions. However major departments, such as the Education Bureau, do provide information based on district.