Number 8 Divisions | ||
 | ||
Populations 8,325,666 (Barisal) – 36,054,418 (Dhaka) Government Government of Bangladesh | ||
The administration of Bangladesh is divided into eight major regions called divisions (বিভাগ bibhag). Each division is named after the major city within its jurisdiction that also serves as the administrative headquarters of that division. Each division is further split into several districts (জেলা jela) which are then further sub-divided into Upazilas (উপজেলা upôjela).
Contents
History
Following the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the country had four divisions: Chittagong Division, Dhaka Division, Khulna Division and Rajshahi Division.
In 1983, the English spelling of the Dacca Division (along with the name of the capital city) was changed into Dhaka to more closely match the Bengali pronunciation.
In 1993, Barisal Division was split off from Khulna Division; in 1995, Sylhet Division was split off from Chittagong Division; and in 2010 (25 January), Rangpur Division was split off from Rajshahi Division. In terms of area the newly formed Rangpur Division ranked fifth followed by Barisal and Sylhet division.
On 14 September 2015 Mymensingh Division was added as eighth division. In 2015 there started process to create two more divisions, Comilla Division and Faridpur Division.
List of divisions
The following table outlines some key statistics about the eight divisions of Bangladesh as found in the 2011 Population and Housing Census conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Proposed divisions
Two more divisions have been proposed to ease down administrative work load due to population increase: