West Bengal - Subdivisions

Subdivisions

The following is a list of nineteen districts of by rank in India.

Rank	District	Population	Growth rate	Sex ratio	Literacy	Density per Kilometer
2	North 24 Parganas	10,082,852	12.86	949	84.95	2463
6	South 24 Parganas	8,153,176	18.05	949	78.57	819
7	Bardhaman	7,723,663	12.01	943	77.15	1100
9	Murshidabad	7,102,430	21.07	957	67.53	1334
14	West Midnapore	5,943,300	14.44	960	79.04	636
16	Hooghly	5,520,389	9.49	958	82.55	1753
18	Nadia	5,168,488	12.24	947	75.58	1316
20	East Midnapore	5,094,238	15.32	936	87.66	1076
23	Howrah	4,841,638	13.31	935	83.85	3300
35	Kolkata	4,486,679	-1.88	899	87.14	24252
58	Maldah	3,997,970	21.50	939	62.71	1071
66	Jalpaiguri	3,869,675	13.77	954	73.79	621
80	Bankura	3,596,292	12.64	954	70.95	523
84	Birbhum	3,502,387	16.15	956	70.90	771
124	North Dinajpur	3,000,849	22.90	936	60.13	956
129	Purulia	2,927,965	15.43	955	65.38	468
136	Cooch Behar	2,822,780	13.86	942	75.49	833
257	Darjeeling	1,842,034	14.47	971	79.92	585
295	South Dinajpur	1,670,931	11.16	954	73.86	753

Each district is governed by a district collector or district magistrate, appointed either by the Indian Administrative Service or the West Bengal Civil Service. Each district is subdivided into Sub-Divisions, governed by a sub-divisional magistrate, and again into Blocks. Blocks consists of panchayats (village councils) and town municipalities.

The capital and largest city of the state is Kolkata – the third-largest urban agglomeration and the seventh-largest city in India. Asansol is the second largest city & urban agglomeration in West Bengal after Kolkata. Siliguri is an economically important city, strategically located in the northeastern Siliguri Corridor (Chicken's Neck) of India. Other major cities and towns in West Bengal are Howrah, Durgapur, Raniganj, Haldia, Jalpaiguri, Kharagpur, Burdwan, Darjeeling, Midnapore, and Malda.