Districts of Karnataka

Karnataka state is comprised of 27 districts, grouped into four divisions. Population is from the 2001 Census of India, followed by the percentage increase in population, 1991-2001.

Karnataka state (52,733,958, 17.25%)

Bangalore Division

Bangalore District (6,523,110, 34.80%)
Bangalore Rural District (1,877,416, 12.21%)
Chitradurga District (1,510,227, 15.05%)
Davanagere District (1,789,693, 14.78%)
Kolar District (2,523,406, 13.83%)
Shimoga District (1,639,595, 12.90%)
Tumkur District (2,579,516, 11.87%)
Belgaum Division
Bagalkot District (1,652,232, 18.84%)
Belgaum District (4,207,264, 17.40%)
Bijapur District (1,808,863, 17.63%)
Dharwad District (1,603,794, 16.65%)
Gadag District (971,955, 13.14%)
Haveri District (1,437,860, 13.29%)
Uttara Kannada District (1,353,299, 10.90%)

Gulbarga Division
Bellary District (2,025,242, 22.30%)
Bidar District (1,501,374, 19.56%)
Gulbarga District (3,124,858, 21.02%)
Koppal District (1,193,496, 24.57%)
Raichur District (1,648,212, 21.93%)

Mysore Division

Chamarajanagar District (964,275, 9.16%)
Chikmagalur District (1,139,104, 11.98%)
Dakshina Kannada District (1,896,403, 14.51%)
Hassan District (1,721,319, 9.66%)
Kodagu District (545,322, 11.64%)
Mandya District (1,761,718, 7.14%)
Mysore District (2,624,911, 15.04%)
Udupi District (1,109,494, 6.88%)

District History

Karnataka took its present shape in 1956, when the states of Mysore and Coorg (Kodagu) were merged with the Kannada-speaking districts of the former states of Bombay and Hyderabad, and Madras. Mysore state was made up of ten districts, Bangalore, Kolar, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Hassan, Chikmagalur (Kadur), Shimoga and Chitradurga; Bellary had been transferred from Madras state to Mysore in 1953, when the new state of Andhra Pradesh was created out of Madras’ northern districts. Kodagu became a district, and Dakshina Kannada (South Kanara) district was transferred from Madras state, North Kanara, Dharwad, Belgaum, and Bijapur districts from Bombay state, and Bidar, Gulbarga, and Raichur districts from Hyderabad state.

In 1989 Bangalore Rural district was split from Bangalore. and in 1997 Bagalkot district split from Bijapur, Chamrajnagar district split from Mysore, Gadag district split from Dharwad, Haveri district split from Dharwad, Koppal district split from Raichur, Udupi district split from Dakshina Kannada, and Davanagere district was created from parts of Bellary, Chitradurga, Dharwad, and Shimoga.