Sherpur (District)

Sherpur District
Basic data
Country	Bangladesh
division	Maimansingh
Seat	Sherpur
surface	1,364.7 km²
Residents	1,358,325 (2011)
density	995 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	BD-41
Website	sherpur.gov.bd

Coordinates: 25 ° 0 ′  N , 90 ° 0 ′  E

Sherpur ( Bengali শেরপুর জেলা , Sherpur Jelā or Sherpur Zila ) English : Sherpur District ) is an administrative district in Bangladesh and is part of the Maimansingh division, which was newly formed in 2015 . Previously, the district was part of the Dhaka Division . The district capital is the city of Sherpur .

geography

The 1364.67 km² district borders on India in the north, the Maimansingh district in the east and the Jamalpur district in the south and west .

The main flowing waters in Sherpur are the Old Brahmaputra , Bogai Chellashali , Maharashi , Malijee and Mrigi , all of which are part of the Meghna river system.

climate

The climate is tropical and warm all year round. The annual average temperature varies from a maximum of 33.3 degrees Celsius to a minimum of 12 degrees. The annual rainfall is 2174 mm (2011) and the humidity is high all year round. There is little rain in the months from November to March. June, July and August are the months with the most rain.

history

In the Middle Ages it was part of various small kingdoms that were partly Buddhist, partly Hindu. First it was part of the Kingdom of Kamarupa , then from 750 of the Kingdom of Pala and from 1120 part of the Sena Empire . From the 12th century onwards, Muslim armies tried to conquer the area, which they succeeded between 1204 and 1303. It belonged first to the Sultanate of Delhi , later to the Sultanate of Bengal and then to the Mughal Empire . From 1765 it belonged to British India as part of the Dhaka Division to the Mymensingh District (today Maimansingh Division). The sub-district emerged in the 19th century. From 1947 to 1971 the district was part of East Pakistan in the Republic of Pakistan. On January 22, 1984, the previous sub-district of Sherpur became an independent district.

population

Population development

As everywhere in Bangladesh, the population in the district has been growing rapidly for decades. The following table illustrates this:

age structure

As everywhere in Bangladesh, the population is on average very young. The average age at the last census in 2011 was 21.99 years and the trend is rising.

The 2011 census showed the following age structure:

Age	0–9 years	10–19 years	20-29 years	30–39 years	40-49 years	50–59 years	60–69 years	70–79 years	80 years and more
number	347.504	257.403	225,698	184,823	139,446	90.791	61,605	33,287	17,768
proportion of	25.58%	18.95%	16.62%	13.61%	10.27%	6.68%	4.54%	2.45%	1.31%
Source: Zila Sherpur, table P14, page 252

Significant places

The most populous place within the district is the district capital Sherpur . Other towns (Town) are Nakla , Nalitabari and Sribardi . The urban population makes up only 13.85 percent of the total population. The five main towns of the Upazilas have the following population figures:

Ethnic groups

The population is ethnically very uniform. Only 16,231 people do not belong to the Bengal people. These include 8456 Garo , 2898 Barman and 1839 Koch . In Upazila Nakla there are almost only Bengali. In the other four Upazilas there are scattered members of minorities.

religion

Until the early Middle Ages, the majority of the population was Buddhist. But a thousand years ago there were also numerous Hindus. With the Muslim conquest of the region in 1303, Buddhism almost completely disappeared and many caste-free Hindus also converted to Islam over the course of the next few centuries.

At the 1911 census, of 304,211 residents of the Thanas Nalitabari and Sherpur (today's district), 224,503 (73.80%) were Muslims, 74,362 (24.44%) were Hindus, 5021 (1.65%) were animists and only 253 (0.08%) %) Christians. In Thana Nalitabari, 34% of the population were Hindu.

At the last census in British India in 1941, four of today's five Upazilas passed as Thanas (Nakla, Nalitabari, Sherpur Sadar and Sribardi). Three had clearly Muslim majorities with Hindu minorities between 12.13 and 15.62 percent. In Nalitabari it was 31.87 percent.

Due to the high birth rate and the emigration of Hindus, the proportion of Muslims is growing steadily. In 2011 there are only small Hindu minorities between 1 and 4 percent in all Upazilas. The Hindu minority in Upazila Nalitabari, which was once strongly Hindu, is still 3.78 percent.

year	Buddhists		Christians		Hindus		Muslims		Other		Total
	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of
1981	91	0.00%	9075	0.99%	31,257	3.40%	878.611	95.41%	1855	0.20%	920.889	100.00%
1991	1180	0.10%	10,483	0.92%	34,529	3.03%	1,087,494	95.51%	4943	0.44%	1,138,629	100.00%
2001	39	0.00%	9314	0.73%	34,112	2.67%	1,234,834	96.50%	1243	0.10%	1,279,542	100.00%
2011	34	0.00%	8686	0.64%	34,944	2.57%	1,313,519	96.70%	1142	0.09%	1,358,325	100.00%
Source: 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 census results

administration

A Sherpur administrative unit (Sherpur Thana) was created as early as 1807 during the British colonial era. The Thana was later divided into the Thanas Nalitabari (created in 1888) and Sherpur and after that, during the colonial era, into the four Thanas Nakla (split off from Nalitabari in 1922), Nalitabari, Sherpur Sadar and Sribardi (split off from Sherpur in 1918). In 1983, Upazila Jhenaigati was the fifth and last. These became today's district on February 22, 1984. Administratively, the district is divided into five Upazilas : Jhenaigati, Nakla, Nalitabari, Sherpur Sadar and Sribardi (also called Sreebardi). Within this administrative division there are four self-governing towns ( municipalities ), 52 Union Parishads (village councils) and 695 villages.

economy

There are a total of 1,010,821 people (2011) who are older than 10 years. Of these, 256,828 people are in school or are not gainfully employed, 10,870 people are looking for work and 367,723 people work in a household. 375,400 people are in paid employment. Of these, 261,055 (= 69.5 percent) people work in agriculture and fishing, 26,347 in industry and 87,998 in services.

Web links

• Article on Sherpur District at Banglapedia
• Sherpur at the 2011 census
• Zila Sherpur at the 2011 census