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Geography & Administration · Reference

The 77 Districts of Nepal नेपालका ७७ जिल्लाहरू

Between Nepal's seven provinces and its 753 local levels sit the 77 districts — the administrative unit most Nepalis still name first when asked where they are from. This library profiles every one of them with the figures that matter: the 2021 census population, the official area, density, headquarters, local levels and what each district is known for. The contrasts are extreme — Kathmandu packs 5,169 people into every square kilometre while Manang has 3; Dolpa is 66 times the size of Bhaktapur. Every figure is cited to the National Population and Housing Census 2021.

Districts

77

across 7 provinces · 753 local levels · 147,181 km²

Population (2021)

29,164,578

sum of district counts, NPHC 2021 census

Most populous

Kathmandu

2,041,587 people (2021)

Least populous

Manang

5,658 people (2021)

Boundaries

District map of Nepal

All 77 post-2017 district boundaries. Hover a district to see it; click for its population, area and a link to the full profile.

Boundaries are the official OCHA/Survey-Department COD polygons via the MIT-licensed geoJSON-Nepal dataset, simplified for the web. Headquarters pins, where shown, are approximate.

Province by province

Every district, grouped by province

The official order runs east to west: Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali, Sudurpashchim. Open any district for its full profile — figures, local levels, map and sources.

Koshi Province

14 districts · 4,961,412 people (2021)

Madhesh Province

8 districts · 6,114,600 people (2021)

Bagmati Province

13 districts · 6,116,866 people (2021)

Gandaki Province

11 districts · 2,466,427 people (2021)

Lumbini Province

12 districts · 5,122,078 people (2021)

Karnali Province

10 districts · 1,688,412 people (2021)

Sudurpashchim Province

9 districts · 2,694,783 people (2021)

Common questions

Nepal's districts, answered

How many districts does Nepal have?

Nepal has 77 districts, organised under 7 provinces by the 2015 constitution. The 77 derive from the previous 75: in 2017 Nawalparasi was split into Nawalpur (Gandaki Province) and Nawalparasi West (Lumbini Province), and Rukum was split into Rukum East (Lumbini) and Rukum West (Karnali). Below the districts sit 753 local levels — 6 metropolitan cities, 11 sub-metropolitan cities, 276 municipalities and 460 rural municipalities.

Which is the most populous district in Nepal?

Kathmandu, with 2,041,587 people in the 2021 census — it is also Nepal's densest district at 5,169 persons per km². Morang (1,148,156) and Rupandehi (1,121,957) are the only other districts above one million.

Which is the largest district in Nepal by area?

Dolpa in Karnali Province, at 7,889 km² of official statistical area — yet it holds only 42,774 people, a density of just 5 per km². The smallest district is Bhaktapur at 119 km², which is nonetheless Nepal's third-densest (3,631/km²) and fastest-growing (+3.35% per year, 2011–21).

Which district has the smallest population?

Manang in Gandaki Province, with just 5,658 people in 2021 at a density of 3 per km² — a trans-Himalayan rain-shadow district. Neighbouring Mustang is second-smallest with 14,452 people.

Why did Nepal's 75 districts become 77?

Implementing the 2015 federal constitution, the government in 2017 split two districts that straddled new province boundaries: Nawalparasi became Nawalpur — officially 'Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East)' — in Gandaki and Nawalparasi West in Lumbini, while Rukum became Rukum East in Lumbini and Rukum West in Karnali. Every other district kept its old boundary.

Which districts of Nepal are losing population?

34 of the 77 districts recorded fewer people in 2021 than in 2011 — every one of them a hill or mountain district. Ramechhap declined fastest in the country at −1.67% per year, while Tarai districts and the Kathmandu Valley grew strongly. The pattern reflects sustained migration from the hills to the plains, the cities and abroad.

Which province has the most districts?

Koshi Province has the most with 14 districts, followed by Bagmati with 13 and Lumbini with 12. Madhesh has the fewest at 8 — yet, packed into Nepal's smallest provincial area, those 8 Tarai districts hold about 6.11 million people, making Madhesh the country's densest province.

What is a district headquarters in Nepal?

Each district has a designated headquarters town hosting its administration — for example Biratnagar for Morang, Pokhara for Kaski and Dhangadhi for Kailali. The HQ is not always the district's biggest town: Rupandehi's headquarters is Siddharthanagar (Bhairahawa) even though Butwal, also in Rupandehi, is the larger city and Lumbini's province capital.

Keep exploring

People & census →Nepal's 2021 census in full — population, languages, religion, migration.Earthquakes →From the 2015 Gorkha disaster to the 2023 Jajarkot–Rukum West quake.Lakes →Rara in Mugu, Phewa in Kaski, Shey Phoksundo in Dolpa — by district.

Sources & data note

All population, household, density, sex-ratio and growth figures are from the National Population and Housing Census 2021 (NSO National Report, Table 15; census reference date 25 November 2021), with 2011 comparisons from the 2011 census recalculated to current boundaries for the four districts split in 2017. Areas are the official statistical areas used by NSO/CBS — the 77 districts sum to exactly 147,181 km² — not GIS polygon areas; where Wikipedia's list page prints conflicting areas for the four split districts (Nawalpur, Nawalparasi West, Rukum East, Rukum West), the NSO-consistent figures are used. Literacy rates are computed from NSO Table 24 raw counts (population aged 5+ who can read and write); the computed national aggregate, 76.25%, matches NSO's published 76.2%. Headquarters coordinates are approximate map-pin locations (±2–5 km), not surveyed points.