Cities and towns in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

are incorporated under

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. A municipality in Nepal is a sub-unit of a district. The

Government of Nepal The Government of Nepal () is the central executive authority of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The government is led by the Prime Minister of Nepal, prime minister (K. P. Sharma Oli, K.P. Oli since 15 July 2024) who selects all the o ...

has set-out a minimum criteria for municipalities. These criteria include a certain population, infrastructure and revenues. Presently, there are 293 municipalities in Nepal among which 6 are metropolis, 11 are sub-metropolis and 276 are municipal councils. Other than that there are 460 rural municipalities totaling 753 local level government within Nepal.

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

, the capital, is also the largest city. In terms of area,

Pokhara Pokhara ( ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city located in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. Named the country's "capital of tourism" it is the List of cities in Nepal, second largest city after Kathmandu, with 599,5 ...

is the largest metropolitan city covering a subtotal of 464.28 km² while Lalitpur is the smallest, with an area of 36.12 km². Ghorahi is the largest sub-metropolitan city with an area of 522.21 km² where as

Dhangadhi Dhangadhi () is a sub-metropolitan city and the district headquarters of Kailali District in Sudurpashchim Province of Nepal. It shares a border with India in the south, Godawari and Gauriganga Municipality in the North, Kailari Rural Munici ...

is the largest sub-metropolitan city by a population of 204,788.

Budhanilkantha Budhanilkantha is a city and municipality in Kathmandu district of Bagmati Province, Bagmati province of Nepal. It is the 3rd largest List of cities in Nepal, city in the Kathmandu Valley after Kathmandu and Lalitpur, Nepal, Lalitpur. As per 2021 ...

with a population of 179,688 is the largest municipality followed by

Birendranagar Birendranagar () officially Birendranagar Municipality is a city in Surkhet District in Karnali Province of Nepal. It is the capital city of Karnali Province, Karnali province as well as the district headquarter of Surkhet district. As of March ...

with a population of 154,886. In terms of area, Sitganga is the largest municipality with an area of .

List of cities by classification

Along with other major criteria as mentioned in Local Governance Act 2017 of Nepal, the number of population to be considered as the municipality: the minimum population in mountainous district should be 10,000 while hilly districts, inner terai districts, terai districts, and Kathmandu valley should include forty thousand, fifty thousand, seventy thousand and one hundred thousand respectively. For sub-metropolitan, the population should be two hundred thousand, and it should be five hundred thousand for metropolitan. The list includes the cities and not urban agglomerations. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has classified the local units into four grades based on infrastructure and social development. The cities listed in bold are the capitals of their respective

provinces of Nepal The Provinces of Nepal, officially the Autonomous Nepalese Provinces (), were formed on 20 September 2015 in accordance with Schedule 4 of the Constitution of Nepal. The seven provinces were formed by grouping the existing List of districts of ...

. Cities in bold and ''italics'' are the country capital. Nepal Urban Municipality

Metropolitan cities

Sub-metropolitan cities

Municipality

References

External links

Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics.gov: Census 2011 − Final results of population and housing of VDC-Village development committees/Municipalities−cities
— ''Table 2 (p. 8)''.
Ekendraonline.com: Cost of Living Index in Nepal — Statistics & Graphs of Nepalese Citizen's Economic Power (January 2014)
{{Nepal topics 01 01

Cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Cities in Asia by country