Bangladesh Districts

The district (zila) is the second tier of Bangladesh, between the eight divisions and the upazilas, and the unit that names most of the cities on a road sign or a bus. There are 64 of them, from the small ones that crowd round Dhaka to the vast hill districts of the south east.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Division: the eight of the country
In the game: 64 districts

Start

What you are looking at

The districts of Bangladesh. Each is named for its main town, so the name that heads a division is usually also a district: Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet and Barishal each give their name to one of each. Mymensingh does too, as the 2015 division and the older district.

Several names are spelled differently on older maps, because the government changed the romanisation in 2018. The quiz uses the current ones: Barishal for Barisal, Bogura for Bogra, Cumilla for Comilla, Chattogram for Chittagong, Jashore for Jessore, Jhalakathi for Jhalokati and Chapainawabganj for Nawabganj. Moulvibazar and Brahmanbaria are the other two that moved.

The districts are very uneven. In the centre, round Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Gazipur and Manikganj are packed so tightly that the smallest have a tap area wider than their outline, and zooming in is the way to reach them. In the south east the opposite holds: Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari, the three hill districts, are each far bigger than the ones around the capital. Bhola, an island in the Meghna estuary, is the one district that is almost entirely surrounded by water.

The groups are the divisions, so the game lets you drill them one at a time. Each division answers under the same name in Bangladesh Divisions.

How to place one

Pick one division and learn it. Mymensingh and Sylhet have only four each and are the quickest to finish; Dhaka has thirteen and Chattogram eleven.
Start with the hills. Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari are the three on the Myanmar and Indian border, and nothing else on the map is as large.
Follow the rivers. The Jamuna runs north to south on the west of Mymensingh and Dhaka; the districts either side of it fall into different divisions.
Read the south as a coast. Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat hold the Sundarbans on the Indian border, Barguna, Patuakhali and Bhola face the Bay of Bengal, and Noakhali, Feni, Chattogram and Cox's Bazar run down the east.

Every district, by division

Dhaka13 districts: Dhaka, Faridpur, Gazipur, Gopalganj, Kishoreganj, Madaripur, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Tangail
Chattogram11 districts: Bandarban, Brahmanbaria, Chandpur, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Cumilla, Feni, Khagrachhari, Lakshmipur, Noakhali, Rangamati
Rajshahi8 districts: Bogura, Chapainawabganj, Joypurhat, Naogaon, Natore, Pabna, Rajshahi, Sirajganj
Sylhet4 districts: Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Sylhet
Khulna10 districts: Bagerhat, Chuadanga, Jashore, Jhenaidah, Khulna, Kushtia, Magura, Meherpur, Narail, Satkhira
Mymensingh4 districts: Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Netrakona, Sherpur
Rangpur8 districts: Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Panchagarh, Rangpur, Thakurgaon
Barishal6 districts: Barguna, Barishal, Bhola, Jhalakathi, Patuakhali, Pirojpur

Worked examples

Rangamati

The biggest of them

Rangamati is the largest district in Bangladesh by a wide margin, in the hills of the south east on the border with India and Myanmar. It holds Kaptai Lake, the reservoir that drowned the old town.

Narayanganj

The small one by the capital

Narayanganj is one of the smallest districts, a river port on the Shitalakshya just south east of Dhaka, and the centre of the country's jute and garment trade. It is small enough to need a tap area on the map.

Chapainawabganj

The name that changed

Chapainawabganj is the district at the far west tip of the country, in Rajshahi division, among the mango orchards by the Padma. Many maps still call it just Nawabganj, so it is worth knowing both forms.

Frequently asked questions

How many districts does Bangladesh have?

64, spread over the eight divisions.

Why do some names look different from older maps?

The government changed the English spelling of several in 2018: Chittagong became Chattogram, Comilla became Cumilla, Jessore became Jashore and Barisal became Barishal, among others.