Lima, the capital of Peru, is divided into forty-three districts (Spanish: distritos), which are further divided into several neighbourhoods (Spanish: urbanizaciones) or, alternatively, populated centres (Spanish: centros poblados). Additionally, all districts are grouped into four conos (North, East, Centre and South), unofficial subregions that make up the province as a whole.

The city is coterminous with the province of the same name, with each district being under the administration of both a local municipal government and the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, which administers the province in its entirety. This province, alongside that of Callao, form the Lima metropolitan area.

The urban area of Lima is generally considered to be formed by thirty of the 42 districts. The remaining thirteen districts consist of mostly rural and sparsely populated desert and mountainous areas. Of these peripheral districts, many of the coastal ones serve as beach resorts and their population, which is considerably smaller than that of the urban districts, increases during the summer months.

Area and population information on the following list has been retrieved from official data by the Peruvian National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (Spanish: Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática, INEI). Demographic data is based on the 2005 Census, carried out from 18 July through 20 August 2005. Population density is given to one decimal place in persons per square kilometer. UBIGEO numbers are codes used by INEI to identify national administrative subdivisions. Foundation dates have been retrieved from a compilation by the Peruvian Congress published in 2000.