Sylhet (district)

Sylhet district
Basic data
Country	Bangladesh
division	Sylhet
Seat	Sylhet
surface	3,452.1 km²
Residents	3,434,188 (2011)
density	995 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	BD-60
Website	sylhet.gov.bd

Coordinates: 24 ° 53 '  N , 91 ° 52'  E

Sylhet ( Bengali : সিলেট জেলা ) is an administrative district in northeastern Bangladesh , which lies within the Sylhet Division , the superordinate administrative unit. The district capital is also called Sylhet . The district has 3,434,188 inhabitants (2011 census).

geography

The 3452.07 km² district borders in the north on the Indian state of Meghalaya , in the east on the Indian state of Assam , in the south on the district Maulvibazar and in the west on the districts Sunamganj and Habiganj .

The main rivers are the Kushiyara and the Surma , which are actually two arms of the Barak . Except for a few hills, the area of ​​the district is a lowland.

climate

The temperatures fluctuate between 13.6 ° C and 33.2 ° Celsius. The average annual rainfall is 3334 mm. The average humidity is over 70%. There is little rain in the months from November to March. June, July and August are the months with the most rain.

history

From 630, the area of ​​today's district was part of the Hindu kingdom of Gour , which existed until 1303. Then, under the leadership of Shamsuddin Firuz Shah, Muslims conquered the kingdom. It was ruled by Muslim dynasties in the period up to the beginning of British rule. First from the Sultanate of Lakhnauti under the said conqueror. Between 1328 and 1352 the area of ​​today's Sylhet district belonged to the Sultanate of Delhi . Then it belonged to the Sultanate of Bengal from until 1565 and from 1565 to 1765 it was part of the Mughal Empire . From 1765 it belonged to British India as part of the Dhaka Division and from 1874 to Assam under the name North Sylhet within the Sylhet District (today's Sylhet Division). From 1947 to 1971 the district was part of East Pakistan in the Republic of Pakistan. On March 1, 1984, the previous Sylhet sub-district 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. At the last census in 2011, the average age was just over 19 years, with a slight upward trend.

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	906.667	802.530	607.107	416.233	298.070	181.092	121.217	63,406	37,866
proportion of	26.40%	23.37%	17.68%	12.12%	8.68%	5.27%	3.53%	1.85%	1.10%
Source: Zila Sylhet, table P14, page 449

Significant places

The town with the largest population and the only major city within the district is the district capital Sylhet (531,663 inhabitants). Other towns (Town) are Beanibazar , Kanighat and Zakiganj . But with Bishwanath , Companiganj , Dakshin Surma , Fenchuganj and Gopalganj there are five other places without municipal rights with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The urban population makes up only 21.94 percent of the total population. The named places have the following population figures (for clarity without the city of Sylhet):

Ethnic groups

The population is ethnically very uniform. Only 12,781 people do not belong to the Bengal people. These include 3068 Manipuri, 1472 Khasi and 457 Garo.

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.

Today there is an overwhelming majority of the supporters of Islam. Around 1900 there were almost as many Hindus as Muslims in today's region (Sylhet division, then Sylhet district). A higher birth rate of Muslims on the one hand and the migration of Hindus to India have changed this drastically in the last 120 years. Just over 10 percent of the respective population are Hindus only in the city and region of Sylhet and in the Upazilas Fenchuganj and Zakiganj. Besides the Muslims and the Hindus, there are only a few followers of other religions.

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	333	0.02%	1420	0.08%	151,809	8.54%	1,619,937	91.12%	4285	0.24%	1,777,784	100.00%
1991	587	0.03%	1890	0.09%	167.966	7.80%	1,980,175	91.96%	2683	0.12%	2,153,301	100.00%
2001	352	0.01%	1831	0.07%	186,565	7.30%	2,365,728	92.57%	1090	0.04%	2,555,556	100.00%
2011	647	0.02%	2447	0.07%	248.154	7.23%	3,180,766	92.62%	2174	0.06%	3,434,188	100.00%
Source: 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 census results

education

There are several public and private universities in the district and numerous colleges. The state education system also includes primary and secondary schools. There are also private schools and a few religious schools ( madrasas ).

Nevertheless, the level of education is at a low level. Only 39.07 percent of 5-9 year olds and 40.01 percent of 10-14 year olds attended school (2011). What is rather unusual for the region is the fact that in the 5-9 year old age group, twice as many girls as boys go to school. The distribution among 10-14 year olds is more typical. 39.25 percent of boys go to school there, but only 17.95 percent of girls.

At the end of the colonial era, almost the entire population was illiterate. That changed little when the area was part of East Pakistan. In 1981 only 25 percent of the population could read and write. Despite significant efforts, the goal of full literacy is still a long way off. There are also huge differences. While 2 out of 3 can read and write for men in cities, less than half of women in rural areas can. The following table shows the development:

Literacy in the Sylhet district
unit	1991 census	2001 census	2011 census
	proportion of	proportion of	number	proportion of
TOTAL	33.85%	45.99%	1,443,581	51.18%
Men	39.87%	49.43%	756.328	53.48,%
Women	27.49%	41.55%	687.253	48.87%
TOTAL CITY	54.83%	63.98%	412.817	64.20%
City men	60.79%	67.99%	229,345	67.42%
City women	47.76%	59.09%	183,472	60.58%
TOTAL COUNTRY	29.77%	41.54%	1,030,764	47.34%
Country men	35.52%	44.97%	526.983	49.06%
Country women	16.56%	38.05%	503.781	45.66%
Source: Zila Sylhet in the 2011 census, tables PT-15, page 23 and P-07, page 242

Educational institutions

The most important educational institutions in the district are:

• Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Public University)
• Sylhet Agricultural University (Public University)
• Sylhet Engineering College (Public University; until 2007 part of Sylhet Agricultural University)
• Leading University (private university)
• Metropolitan University, Sylhet (private university)
• North East University (private university)
• Sylhet International University (private university)

administration

Although Sylhet was created in 1874 as an administrative subunit of the Sylhet district, it was not until 1984 that it received the status of an independent national administrative district. Sylhet is divided into 13 Upazilas : Balaganj, Beanibazar, Bishwanath, Companiganj, Dakshin Surma, Fenchuganj, Gopalganj, Gowainghat, Jaintapur, Kanighat, Osmaninagar, Sylhet and Zakiganj. Within this administrative subdivision there are four self-governing towns ( municipalities ), 105 Union Parishads (village councils) and 3206 villages.

economy

In total there are (2011) 2,527,521 people who are older than 10 years. Of these, 844,033 people are in school, 39,369 people are looking for work and 789,598 people work in a household. 854,521 people are in paid employment. Of these, 316,108 (= 37.0 percent) people work in agriculture and fishing, 136,429 in industry and 401,984 in services.

The Sylhet division generates 95% of the tea harvest in Bangladesh. The main agricultural products are also rice , mustard seeds and betel nuts . The most common types of fruit are mangoes , jackfruit , orange , litchis and pineapple . The main export products are rice, tea, betel nuts, natural gas and fertilizers . In addition, natural gas and crude oil are extracted and exported.

Web links

• Article on the Sylhet district at Banglapedia
• Sylhet at the 2011 census
• Zila Sylhet at the 2011 census
• Article North Sylhet in the Imperial Gazetteer of India