Wards of Nepal's Major Cities: Ward Counts and Structure

A ward, called wada in Nepali, is the smallest administrative unit of local government in Nepal. Every local level, whether a metropolitan city, sub-metropolitan city, municipality or rural municipality, is subdivided into wards that carry a simple number, for example Kathmandu Ward No. 16 or Lalitpur Ward No. 3. The ward is where ordinary citizens actually interact with the state for most day-to-day paperwork, so knowing your ward number matters for documents, voter rolls and local services.

Wards were re-drawn and formalised during Nepal's restructuring into a federal state. The Constitution of Nepal, promulgated on 20 September 2015 (3 Ashoj 2072 Bikram Sambat), created three tiers of government, federal, provincial and local, and made the local level a genuine self-governing unit rather than a branch office of the centre. Under this structure the country is divided into 753 local levels, which are together split into 6,743 wards nationwide.

Each ward is more than a line on a map. It has its own elected leadership, a physical ward office, and a defined bundle of legal duties. This means a resident's ward is both an electoral constituency (you vote for your ward chairperson and members) and a service window (you visit the ward office for recommendation letters, birth and death registration, and similar tasks).

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (Kathmandu Mahanagarpalika) is divided into 32 wards, numbered 1 to 32. Before the federal restructuring the old Kathmandu municipality had 35 wards, which had long made it the local body with the most wards in Nepal; the count was reset to 32 when the new metropolitan boundaries and ward divisions were fixed ahead of the 2017 local elections. According to the 2021 National Census, Kathmandu Metropolitan City had a population of about 845,767 living in roughly 105,649 households.

Pokhara Metropolitan City (Pokhara Mahanagarpalika), in Gandaki Province, has the largest number of wards of any Nepali metropolis, 33 wards. Pokhara reached this size when the former Pokhara sub-metropolitan city, Lekhnath Municipality and several surrounding areas were merged into a single metropolitan city in 2016-2017 (2073 BS). The 2021 census recorded Pokhara's population at about 513,504, making it Nepal's second most populous metropolitan city.

Lalitpur Metropolitan City (Lalitpur Mahanagarpalika), across the Bagmati River from Kathmandu, is divided into 29 wards. Lalitpur was upgraded to metropolitan status in 2017. Its 2021 census population was roughly 294,098. Together these three Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara metros are the ones people most often search for when they need to confirm a ward number for an ID, land or voter record.

Nepal has six metropolitan cities (mahanagarpalika). Their ward counts differ because ward numbers are set according to population and area within legal limits, not fixed at a single value. Two metros, Kathmandu and Birgunj, have 32 wards each; Pokhara has the most at 33; Bharatpur and Lalitpur have 29 each; and Biratnagar has the fewest at 19.

Bharatpur Metropolitan City in Chitwan (Bagmati Province) has 29 wards and, per the 2021 census, a population of about 369,268, which actually makes it Nepal's third largest city by population despite having fewer wards than Pokhara. Birgunj Metropolitan City in Madhesh Province has 32 wards. Biratnagar Metropolitan City in Koshi Province, one of Nepal's oldest industrial cities, has 19 wards and a 2021 population of roughly 243,927.

The table below and the facts panel summarise the six metros. Populations are from the 2021 National Population and Housing Census published by the National Statistics Office (formerly the Central Bureau of Statistics). Ward counts are drawn from each city's official ward directory and have been stable since the 2017 local-level restructuring.

Below the six metros, Nepal has eleven sub-metropolitan cities (upa-mahanagarpalika), the second-highest class of urban local government. Their ward counts generally range from 19 to 27. These are important regional and provincial hubs, and residents there search for their ward numbers just as often as those in the metros.

Ward counts for the sub-metros are set by the same rules that govern all municipalities. Larger or more populous units tend toward the upper end. Janakpur, the historic Mithila city and Madhesh Province capital, has 25 wards; Kalaiya in Bara has 27, the most among sub-metros; while several hill sub-metros such as Butwal, Hetauda, Tulsipur and Ghorahi have 19 wards each.

As with the metros, each sub-metropolitan ward has its own ward office and elected committee, and issues the same recommendation letters and vital-registration services. If you live in a sub-metro, your ward number appears on your citizenship, voter and land records exactly as it does for metro residents.

Every ward is governed by an elected ward committee (wada samiti) of five members. This is set by Article 215 of the Constitution and the Local Government Operation Act, 2074 (2017). The committee is made up of one ward chairperson (wada adhyaksha) and four ward members, all elected directly by the residents of the ward under the first-past-the-post system in the local elections.

The composition is designed to guarantee inclusion. Of the four ward members, at least two must be women, and one of those two women must be a Dalit. This rule, applied in every one of Nepal's 6,743 wards, is one of the most significant affirmative-action provisions in Nepali local government and has brought tens of thousands of women and Dalit representatives into elected office.

The ward chairperson also sits on the wider municipal or rural-municipal assembly, linking the ward to the city or gaunpalika government. Local elections are held every five years; the most recent nationwide local polls were held in 2022 (2079 BS), following the first federal local elections of 2017 (2074 BS).

The ward office (wada karyalaya) is the front line of the Nepali state for citizens. Its single most-used service is the recommendation letter, or sifaris, a signed and stamped letter that verifies facts about a resident, such as identity, permanent residence, relationship or income. A sifaris from the correct ward office is required for a very wide range of tasks: obtaining or renewing citizenship, opening bank accounts, connecting electricity and water, land transactions, scholarships and many visa and passport steps.

Ward offices are also the local registrar of vital events under Nepal's civil registration system. The five registrable vital events, birth, death, marriage, divorce and migration, must be reported to the ward office of the place where the event occurred, generally within 35 days (60 days for events abroad). The ward chairperson or an authorised officer signs and stamps the certificate; without that signature and stamp, a birth or death certificate is not legally valid.

Because these services are tied to a specific ward, getting your ward number right is essential. Your ward is determined by your registered permanent address, and it is printed on your citizenship certificate, voter ID and land ownership documents. If you are unsure of your ward, you can check the ward directory or the interactive ward map on your city's official website, or ask at any ward office in the municipality.

The number of wards in any Nepali local level is not arbitrary; it is fixed within limits set by law and constitution when the local unit is created or restructured. The Local Government Operation Act, 2074 (2017) and the constitutional schedules provide that a rural municipality (gaunpalika) has between 5 and 21 wards, while a municipality (including sub-metros and metros) has between 9 and 35 wards, based on population and geography.

This is why the six metros vary from 19 wards (Biratnagar) to 33 wards (Pokhara): each count was set to reflect that city's population and area at the time of restructuring, not to make every metropolis identical. The legal ceiling of 35 wards for a municipality is also the reason Kathmandu's old 35-ward layout was the previous maximum before its reset to 32.

Ward boundaries and counts can, in principle, be revised by the Government of Nepal, but in practice the divisions set for the 2017 local elections have remained stable through the 2022 elections. For the most authoritative confirmation of any ward number, the definitive sources are the official website and ward directory of the relevant metropolitan or municipal government, and the 2021 census ward-level tables published by the National Statistics Office.