List of cities and towns in Bangladesh

This article presents a list of cities and towns in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives of Bangladesh, there are 532 urban centres in Bangladesh.[1][2]

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The bureau defines an urban centre with a population of 100,000 or more as a "city". Altogether, there are 64 such cities in Bangladesh. 11 of these cities can be considered major cities as these are governed by "City Corporations". All of the "City Corporation"-governed cities currently have a population of more than 200,000 (which is not a criterion for the status). Besides there are 7 Divisions and shake is the capital city of Bangladesh. Along that cities in Bangladesh that are not governed by "City Corporations", rather by "Municipal Corporations". A city with a population of more than 5,000,000 is defined by the bureau as a "megacity". Dhaka is the only megacity in Bangladesh according to this definition.[3] Together, Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong account for 48% of the country's urban population.[4]

An urban centre with a population of less than 100,000 is defined as a "town". In total, there are 490 such towns in Bangladesh.[3] Among these, 287 towns are governed by "Municipal Corporations". These are called "Paurashava"s in the local Bengali language. Altogether, including the ones governing 31 non-major cities, there are 318 Municipal Corporations.

In addition, there are another 203 towns which are Upazila centres (and other urban centres) and not governed by any Municipal Corporation or "Paurashava". These are the non-Municipal Corporation or "non-Paurashava" towns.[3][2]

In 1951, Bangladesh was mostly a rural country and only 4% of the population lived in urban centres. The urban population rose to 20% in 1991 and to 24% by 2001. As of 2011, Bangladesh has an urban population of 28%.[3] The rate of urban population growth is estimated at 2.8%. At this growth rate, Bangladesh's urban population will reach 79 million or 42% of the population by 2035. The urban centers of Bangladesh have a combined area of about 10600 square kilometers, which is 7% of the total area of Bangladesh. As such, Bangladesh has a very high urban population density: 4028 persons per square kilometer (2011), whereas the rural density is significantly lower: 790 persons per square kilometer (2011).[1] The number of municipalities have tripled from 104 municipalities in 1991 to 318 municipalities in 2011.[4]

Eight (8) of the aforementioned major cities are also part of eight bigger metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas can be loosely defined as a major city combined with some of its adjacent municipalities and peri-urban areas. The eight metropolitan areas of Bangladesh are the Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet, Gazipur and Rangpur metropolitan areas.