Regions

Andhra Pradesh can be broadly divided into three regions, namely Coastal Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema.

Coastal Andhra occupies the coastal plain between Eastern Ghats ranges, which run the length of the state, and the Bay of Bengal.

Telangana lies west of the Ghats on the Deccan plateau. The Godavari and Krishna rivers rise in the Western Ghats of Karnataka and Maharashtra and flow east across Telangana to empty into the Bay of Bengal in a combined river delta.

Rayalaseema lies in the southeast of the state on the Deccan plateau, in the basin of the Penner River. It is separated from Telangana by the low Erramala hills, and from Coastal Andhra by the Eastern Ghats.

The Krishna and Godavari rivers together irrigate thousands of square kilometres of land, and create the largest perennial cultivable area in the country. Andhra Pradesh leads in the production of rice (paddy) and is called India’s Rice Bowl.

Languages in Andhra Pradesh

Telugu is the regional and official language of the State, spoken by 84.86 percent of the population. The major linguistic minority groups in the State include the speakers of Urdu (7.86%), Hindi (2.65%) and Tamil (1.27%).The minority language speakers who constitute less than 1 percent are the speakers of Kannada (0.94%), Marathi (0.84%), Oriya (0.42%), Malayalam (0.10%), Gondi (0.21%), and Koya (0.30%).

Urdu is one of the most important languages of Andhra Pradesh. While Telugu is the official language of the state, Urdu is treated as the additional official language in numerical strength. It comes next to Telugu. Urdu is spoken by 55.6 lakh persons in the state.

The state government has notified the areas where the population of linguistic minority constitutes 15% or more of the local population. Telugu is the most preferred language among the Urdu speakers of Andhra. 38 percent of the total Urdu population is bilingual in Telugu.

Important Cities/Towns
Hyderabad is the capital of the state and, along with its twin town of Secunderabad, is the largest city.
visakhapatnam is the second largest city, India’s fourth largest port, an important Naval Centre and an industrial hub.
Tirupati features the famous Venkateswara temple, is a major pilgrimage center.
vijayawada is the third largest city and an important trading center and a prominent railway junction.
Guntur is the heart of the tobacco industry.
Warangal was the capital of the Kakatiya dynasty.
Nellore is famous for its sea food and rice quality. Also famous for mica industry and space research centre.
Kurnool was the capital city of the Andhra state.
Kakinada is the hub of natural gas exploration and industrial activity.
Rajahmundry is known for the Godavari barrage which is the largest bridge in the state.
Ramagundam is an industrial town in the upper Godavari valley

Districts

23 districts of Andhra Pradesh

Adilabad
Anantapur
Chittoor
Cuddapah
East Godavari
Guntur
Hyderabad
Karimnagar
Khammam
Krishna
Kurnool
Mahbubnagar
Medak
Nalgonda
Nellore
Nizamabad
Prakasam
Rangareddy
Srikakulam
visakhapatnam
Vizianagaram
Warangal
West Godavari