Kathmandu Districtकाठमाडौँ जिल्ला

Kathmandu district contains the national capital and dominates every national ranking: 2,041,587 people at the 2021 census — far more than any other district — packed into a statistical area of 395 km² at 5,169 persons per km², the highest density in Nepal. Its eleven local levels, Kathmandu Metropolitan City plus ten surrounding municipalities, are all urban; with Bhaktapur it is one of only two districts with no rural municipality. The district covers the northwestern half of the Kathmandu Valley bowl, rimmed by hills from Chandragiri and Nagarjun to Shivapuri, between roughly 1,260 m and 2,730 m in elevation.

As the seat of federal government, the headquarters of nearly every bank, media house and major company, and home of Tribhuvan International Airport — the country's main air gateway — Kathmandu is Nepal's political and economic engine. It is also its educational pioneer: Durbar High School (the first school), Trichandra College (the first college) and Tribhuvan University at Kirtipur (the first university) all stand here, and at 89.2% the district's literacy rate is the highest in Nepal. Tourism, handicrafts and garments round out an economy that draws migrants from every district, reflected in a male-skewed sex ratio of 102.97 and growth of 1.51% per year.

Historic Kantipur, the Malla royal city that became the Shah capital after 1769, anchors a remarkable concentration of heritage. Four of the seven monument zones of the Kathmandu Valley UNESCO World Heritage property (inscribed 1979) lie in this district alone: the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square, the hilltop stupa of Swayambhunath, the great stupa of Boudhanath at the centre of Nepal's Tibetan Buddhist life, and the Pashupatinath temple complex on the Bagmati, the holiest Shiva site in the country. The Newar hill town of Kirtipur and the sleeping-Vishnu statue of Budhanilkantha add to a density of monuments unmatched in South Asia.