Administrative divisions of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is divided into eight administrative divisions (বিভাগ, bibhag), the first-order administrative tier of the country and the highest level of the central government’s field administration. Each division is headed by a Divisional Commissioner (বিভাগীয় কমিশনার), a senior civil servant appointed by the central government ⁵. Divisions exist for the purposes of central administration and are divided in turn into districts.

The eight divisions

The districts assigned to each division below are as listed by the National Portal of Bangladesh, which groups all 64 districts by division and gives their official Bangla names ¹.

Division	Bangla	Divisional headquarters	Districts in the division	Area (km²)	Population (2022 census)
Dhaka	ঢাকা (*Ḍhākā*)	Dhaka	13	20,509	45,644,586
Chattogram	চট্টগ্রাম (*Caṭṭagrām*)	Chattogram	11	33,909	34,178,612
Rajshahi	রাজশাহী (*Rājśāhī*)	Rajshahi	8	18,153	20,794,019
Khulna	খুলনা (*Khulnā*)	Khulna	10	22,284	17,813,218
Barishal	বরিশাল (*Bariśāl*)	Barishal	6	13,225	9,325,820
Sylhet	সিলেট (*Sileṭ*)	Sylhet	4	12,635	11,415,113
Rangpur	রংপুর (*Raṁpur*)	Rangpur	8	16,185	18,020,071
Mymensingh	ময়মনসিংহ (*Maẏmansiṁha*)	Mymensingh	4	10,669	12,637,472

The eight division populations sum to 169,828,911, which is the final national total of the 2022 Population and Housing Census as published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on 9 April 2023 ³⁶. Areas are given from a compilation of BBS 2011 series data; national land area on the same basis is 147,570 km² ³⁴. Some government portals quote slightly different areas for individual divisions — for Dhaka division, for example, values of about 20,486 km² and 20,594 km² also appear in circulation ⁴.

Formation history

At independence in 1971 Bangladesh had four divisions: Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna ⁴⁵. Four further divisions were created later:

• Barishal was separated from Khulna; 1993 is the commonly cited year ⁴.
• Sylhet was separated from Chittagong. Sources conflict on the year: one curated change history records approximately 1998, while many secondary sources cite 1993 ⁴.
• Rangpur was created on 25 January 2010 ⁴.
• Mymensingh was created in September 2015 (curated change history gives 15 September 2015; English-language reporting commonly cites 14 September 2015) ⁴.

Two naming changes should be noted, as they are respellings rather than new units: the official English spelling of Chittagong division was changed to Chattogram in 2018, and Comilla district was respelled Cumilla in the same year. Dacca was officially respelled Dhaka in 1983 ⁴.

Functions and officers

Divisions are units of central field administration rather than elected local-government bodies. The Divisional Commissioner heads the divisional administration, and divisional-level officers of line ministries are appointed by the central government ⁵. Local government is a separate structure: Articles 59 and 60 of the Constitution provide that local government in every administrative unit is entrusted to bodies composed of persons elected in accordance with law, and empower Parliament to confer on those bodies the power to impose taxes for local purposes, prepare budgets and maintain funds ². The elected tiers sit at district, upazila, union and municipal/city level rather than at division level; the Local Government Division administers them ⁷.

Proposed divisions not created

Proposals to create further divisions have been under consideration but were not enacted as of 19 September 2026:

• Padma Division, proposed to be carved from Faridpur district, and Meghna Division, proposed to be carved from Cumilla and Noakhali districts, were formally postponed in November 2022 and remain unapproved ⁴.
• No gazette notification creating a new division was located for 2024, 2025 or 2026. Reorganisation of the number of divisions is decided by the Cabinet Division through the National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganisation (NICAR) ⁵.

Verification notes

• Division areas are not cited from a BBS page directly. The BBS national census report was located but the PDF exceeded the retrieval size limit, and the BBS website is client-rendered and returned no values to a direct fetch. Areas are therefore taken from a T2 compilation of BBS 2011 series data ³⁴. No T1 division-area table was obtained.
• Establishment years for Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions are given only as "existing at independence"; their original creation dates are not verified here ⁴.
• The Sylhet Division year conflict (1993 vs approximately 1998) is recorded above rather than resolved ⁴.

Sources

7 sources cited. Tiers: T1 official or primary, T2 scholarly or curated, T3 media of record.

1. Bangladesh National Portal — District list (জেলা সমূহ), grouped by division — Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://bangladesh.gov.bd/views/district-list
2. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh — Articles 59 and 60 (Local Government) — Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367/section-24613.html
3. Bangladesh — Divisions and Districts (source stated as Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) — City Population (compilation of BBS data) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.citypopulation.de/en/bangladesh/div/admin/
4. Divisions of Bangladesh (change history, areas, 2011 populations) — Statoids (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://statoids.com/ubd.html
5. LoGICA Intergovernmental Profile: Bangladesh, 2023 — Local Government and Decentralisation Initiative / decentralisation.net (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). http://decentralization.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LOGICA_IGP_BGD2023.pdf
6. Bangladesh’s total population stands at 169,828,911 — New Age (reporting the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics final census result) (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.newagebd.net/article/199023/bangladeshs-total-population-stands-at-169828911
7. Local Government Division — home page — Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://lgd.gov.bd/

---

Every factual claim above is attributed to a numbered source. Figures marked “as of” were retrieved on that date. Not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.