Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns new FIPS codes to the two newest divisions, and changes the code for one old division that changed size.

Chris Dent notified me that the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics  website now has provisional results of the 2001 census, which I used to update the main table.

Mamun pointed out a spelling error in the Bengali name of the country, which I have now fixed.

Bangladesh is divided into bibhag (divisions), which are subdivided into 21 anchal (regions), then further into 64 zila (districts), then into about 493 thana or upazila (subdistricts), and finally into unions. In about 1998, Sylhet, which had been a region within Chittagong division, became a division of its own. ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It confirmed my earlier guess that ISO would assign the code 6 to Sylhet.

Country overview: 

Short name	BANGLADESH
ISO code	BD
FIPS code	BG
Language	Bengali (bn)
Time zone	+6
Capital	Dhaka

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, India was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. It consisted of provinces directly under British control and Native States with feudal allegiance to the British crown. After World War II, Mahatma Gandhi's campaign of passive resistance induced Britain to grant India its independence. In an attempt to avoid ethnic conflict, the country was partitioned into a Hindu section (India) and a Muslim section (Pakistan). Pakistan became a Dominion of the British Commonwealth on 1947-08-14. It consisted of two separate areas of Muslim concentration. The eastern section corresponded to the prewar district of East Bengal, plus a small part of Assam. On 1955-08-14, the two sections became the provinces of West Pakistan and East Pakistan. The two sections suffered from mutual distrust. On 1971-03-26, East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan. A war ensued between India and Pakistan. On 1971-12-15, Pakistan accepted defeat, and East Pakistan became a separate country, aligned with India. The new nation was initially known as Bangla Desh.

Other names of country: 

1. Bengali: Gana Prajatantri Bangladesh (formal)
2. Danish: Bangladesh, Østpakistan (obsolete)
3. Dutch: Bangladesh, Volksrepubliek Bangladesh (formal)
4. English: People's Republic of Bangladesh (formal), East Pakistan (obsolete)
5. Finnish: Bangladesh
6. French: Bangladesh, République f populaire du Bangladesh m (formal)
7. German: Bangladesch n
8. Icelandic: Bangladess
9. Italian: Bangladesh m
10. Norwegian: Bangladesh, Folkerepublikken Bangladesh (formal)
11. Portuguese: Bangladesh, República f Popular do Bangladesh m (formal), Bengala Oriental (obsolete)
12. Spanish: Bangladesh, República f Popular de Bangladesh (formal), Pakistán oriental (obsolete)
13. Swedish: Bangladesh
14. Turkish: Bangladeş, Bangladeş Halk Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Bengali bongo: Bengali, desh: land

Primary subdivisions: 

Bangladesh is divided into six bibhag (divisions).

Division	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)
Barisal	BD.BA	1	BG85	8,112,435	11,394	4,399
Chittagong	BD.CG	2	BG84	23,999,345	32,696	12,624
Dhaka	BD.DA	3	BG81	38,677,876	30,772	11,881
Khulna	BD.KH	4	BG82	14,468,819	22,181	8,564
Rajshahi	BD.RJ	5	BG83	29,992,955	34,235	13,218
Sylhet	BD.SY	6	BG86	7,899,816	12,718	4,910
6 divisions				123,151,246	143,996	55,597
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "BD-" to the code (ex: BD-4 represents Khulna). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Population: 2001-01-23 census provisional data. Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics . Capitals: Capitals have the same name as their divisions.

Postal codes: 

Bangladesh uses four-digit postal codes. Recently the Bangladesh Post Office has appended "00" to all of the codes in preparation for a six-digit scheme to be implemented in the future. At present, the fifth and sixth digits are optional.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Bangladesh page.

Territorial extent: 

Sandwip Island, and other coastal islands to the south and east, down to Saint Martin's Island, are in Chittagong region. Hatia Island and South Hatia Island are in Noakhali region.

According to Brendan Whyte, an expert on the subject, Bangladesh has 92 exclaves in India's West Bengal state (Jalpaiguri and Koch Bihar districts). In 21 of these cases, the Bangladeshi exclave is surrounded by a patch of Indian territory which is itself an exclave in Bangladesh.

Origins of names: 

1. Chittagong: Hindi chitta: white, ganv: village
2. Dhaka: Bengali dhak: name of a papilionaceous tree

Change history: 

1. 1983: Name of capital of country, and its division, changed from Dacca to Dhaka.
2. ~1993: Barisal division split from Khulna.
3. ~1998: Sylhet division split from Chittagong (former HASC code BD.CH, FIPS BG80).

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Barisal: Bakerganj (obsolete)
2. Chittagong: Chattagram (Bengali)
3. Chittagong Hill Tracts: Parbattya Chattagram (Bengali); Rangamati (variant)
4. Dhaka: Daca (Portuguese); Dacca (obsolete); Dakka (Icelandic)
5. Khagrachhari: Ramgarh (variant)
6. Lakshmipur: Laksmipur (variant)
7. Moulvibazar: Moulavibazar (variant)
8. Mymensingh: Nasirabad (obsolete)
9. Natore: Nator (variant)
10. Nawabganj: Chapai Nawabganj (variant)
11. Panchagarh: Panchagar (variant)
12. Shariatpur: Shariyatpur (variant)

Population history:

Division	1981-03-06	1991-03-11	2001-01-23
Barisal		7,757,334	8,112,435
Chittagong	22,565,556	21,865,850	23,999,345
Dhaka	26,248,864	33,939,848	38,677,876
Khulna	17,149,792	13,243,054	14,468,819
Rajshahi	21,087,812	27,499,727	29,992,955
Sylhet		7,149,372	7,899,816
Totals	87,052,024	111,455,185	123,151,246