Khulna Division () is the second largest of the eight divisions of Bangladesh. It has an area of and a population of 17,416,645 at the 2022 Bangladesh census (preliminary returns). Its headquarters and largest city is Khulna city in Khulna District.
History
During the British Raj era, Khulna Division was part of the Presidential Division. Before 1947, the Presidential division included six major districts: Murshidabad, Calcutta, 24 Parganas, Khulna, undivided Jessore, and undivided Nadia. In 1947, The Partition of India divided this division into two. The district of Khulna and the other half of Jessore District and Nadia District became part of the newly established East Bengal. And rest of the district of the presidential division became part of West Bengal. In 1948, Nadia district of East Bengal formed a new district called Kushtia. And the government of East Bengal added the Jessore, Khulna & Kushtia district into the Rajshahi Division. In 1960, the government of East Pakistan decided that these three districts from the Rajshahi Division and one district from the Dacca Division would create a division called Khulna. In 1993, the Barisal Division was formed from the Khulna division.
Geography
The Khulna division borders the indian state of West Bengal to the west, the Rajshahi Division to the north, the Dhaka division to the northeast and the Barisal division to the southeast. It also has a coastline on the Bay of Bengal to the south. It is part of the Ganges River delta or Greater Bengal Delta. Other rivers include the Madhumati River, the Bhairab River and the Kapotaksha River. The region also includes several islands in the Bay of Bengal.
The Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, is in the southern part of the division.
Khulna city is in the northern part of the district, and the Mayur River is the western boundary of the metropolitan area.
Administrative districts
The division was formed in 1960.
Khulna Division consists of the following ten districts (zilas), subdivided into 59 sub-districts (upazilas):
{| class="wikitable sortable col3center col4right col5right col6right col7right col8right col9right col10right sticky-header static-row-numbers static-row-header-hash static-row-numbers-center"
!District
!class="unsortable"|Map
!Est.
!Area
(km<sup>2</sup>)
!Population
(2022)
!Density
(/km<sup>2</sup>)
|-
|Jashore
|75px|Jashore District
|1781
|2607
|3076144
|1200
|6
|8
|-
|Khulna
|75px|Khulna District
|1882
|4394
|2613385
|595
|6
|9
|-
|Kushtia
|75px|Kushtia District
|1947
|1609
|2149692
|1336
|4
|6
|-
|Satkhira
|75px|Satkhira District
|1984
|3817
|2196581
|574
|4
|7
|-
|Jhenaidah
|75px|Jhenaidah District
|1984
|1965
|1771304
|902
|4
|6
|-
|Bagerhat
|75px|Bagerhat District
|1984
|3959
|1613079
|407
|3
|9
|-
|Chuadanga
|75px|Chuadanga District
|1984
|1174
|1234066
|1051
|2
|4
|-
|Magura
|75px|Magura District
|1984
|1039
|1033115
|994
|2
|4
|-
|Narail
|75px|Narail District
|1984
|968
|788673
|815
|2
|3
|-
|Meherpur
|75px|Meherpur District
|1984
|742
|705356
|951
|2
|3
|-
|- class="sortbottom"
! colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" |Total
! align="right" style="text-align:right;" |22,284
! align="right" style="text-align:right;" |17,415,924
! align="right" style="text-align:right;" |781
! align="right" style="text-align:right;" |36
! align="right" style="text-align:right;" |59
|}