Districts give you more in-depth information about the populace residing there, while policies can be applied to individual districts or city-wide bringing flavor and fine-tuning to different areas of the city. The District Panel shows information about how many citizens live there, their average wealth level and what are their Education levels, as well as which policies are enabled for the district. Hovering over the Happiness for the district will show you all the benefits and drawbacks of the area, giving you an idea of how you can improve that part of the city.
Creating a district is quite straightforward. With the District Tool, you define an area by placing corner nodes and once you “close” the area, the district is created. This method is faster and more precise than in the game’s predecessor, and the district can be adjusted after it’s created by moving the nodes or adding new nodes to the edges. It’s named automatically but you are able to rename it after its creation to suit your city.
City services can be assigned to one or more districts limiting their services to only those areas of the city. Services that have not been assigned to any districts will service the entire city, regardless of district borders. It is important to note that even though a service building is assigned to multiple districts, its passive service coverage effect still applies only to its neighborhood. Only its simulated service effects i.e. its vehicles travel to all of the assigned districts.