Number 707 (as of 2016) | ||
 | ||
Category Second-level administrative division Location States and union territories of India Populations Greatest: Thane, Maharashtra—11,060,148 (2011 census)
Least: Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh—8,004 (2011 census) Areas Largest: Kachchh, Gujarat—17,626 sq mi (45,650 km)
Smallest: Mahe, Puducherry—3.36 sq mi (8.7 km) Government District Administration | ||
A district (zilā) is an administrative division of an Indian state or territory. In some cases districts are further subdivided into sub-divisions, and in others directly into tehsils or talukas. As of 2016 there are a total of 707 districts, up from the 640 in the 2011 Census of India and the 593 recorded in the 2001 Census of India.
Contents
District officials include:
Each of these officials is aided by officers from the appropriate branch of the state government.
Most districts have a distinct headquarters; Mumbai City district (MC) in Maharashtra (MH) is an example which, despite forming a district, does not have a clear headquarters, though it does have a District Collector.
Mahe of Puducherry is the smallest (9 km2) district of India by area while Kutch of Gujarat is the largest (45,652 km2) district of India by area.
Naming
The majority of districts are named after their administrative centre. Some are referred to by two names, a traditional one and one that uses the name of the town that is the headquarters. Since most of the districts are named after a town, the word "district" is appended to distinguish between the town and the district. Official websites very often use District with a capital D in this context.
Ambiguous names
The names of the 687 districts are mostly unique. There are some exceptions:
The following tables list the population details of various states. The columns include the hierarchical administrative subdivision codes, the district name, district headquarters, 2011 census population, area in square kilometres, and the population density per square kilometre.