Province
Karnali Province
कर्णाली प्रदेश
NP06- Population
- 1.7M
- 2021 census · NSO
- Area
- 30,663
- km²
- Density
- 55
- people per km²
- Share of Nepal
- 5.8%
- by population
- Working age
- 64%
- aged 15–64
Population & Demographics
How many people live in Nepal, where, and how the population is structured by age and sex. All Population & Demographics indicators →
- Householdsघरपरिवार
- 366,255Households
- —
- Populationजनसंख्या
- 1,688,412Persons1,782,127 · 2023 projection
- female 864,651male 823,761
Number of households enumerated. An institutional facility counts as one household.
2021 census
Resident population. Figures for years after the last census are projections, not counts.
2021 census
2 indicators published for Karnali under population & demographics.
Education
Literacy, schooling and educational attainment. All Education indicators →
- Literacy rateसाक्षरता दर
- 76.1%
- female 69.4%male 83.3%13.9 points higher for men
- 1,156,194Persons
- female 544,125male 612,069
- Population aged 5 and over५ वर्ष र माथिको जनसंख्या
- 1,519,611Persons
- female 784,408male 735,203
Share of the population aged 5 and over who can read and write. The denominator is the 5-plus population, not the total population.
2021 census · not additive across places
The denominator for literacy. Published because a rate without its base cannot be recomputed or aggregated.
2021 census
3 indicators published for Karnali under education.
Age and sex structure
Five-year age bands from the UNFPA 2023 projection, the only source that publishes age detail at this level. Both sides share one scale, so bar lengths are directly comparable.
Show as table
| Age | Female | Male | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80+ | 3,961 | 3,834 | 7,795 |
| 75-79 | 7,127 | 6,562 | 13,689 |
| 70-74 | 13,441 | 12,193 | 25,634 |
| 65-69 | 17,642 | 16,813 | 34,455 |
| 60-64 | 25,592 | 22,824 | 48,416 |
| 55-59 | 31,159 | 26,802 | 57,961 |
| 50-54 | 37,146 | 31,396 | 68,542 |
| 45-49 | 45,103 | 38,979 | 84,082 |
| 40-44 | 50,145 | 37,023 | 87,168 |
| 35-39 | 56,820 | 47,602 | 104,422 |
| 30-34 | 70,092 | 67,695 | 137,787 |
| 25-29 | 82,195 | 87,218 | 169,413 |
| 20-24 | 95,028 | 93,738 | 188,766 |
| 15-19 | 98,293 | 96,244 | 194,537 |
| 10-14 | 99,592 | 102,259 | 201,851 |
| 5-9 | 87,578 | 89,400 | 176,978 |
| 0-4 | 88,652 | 91,979 | 180,631 |
Districts by population
10 districts, 2021. The map answers where; the ranking answers how much.
Population, 2021 · five classes, each holding about 2 of 10 areas · 10 of 10 named on the map.
Not yet covered
Architecturally supported, no provincial data published yet.
Economy · Government & budgets · Elections · Education · Health · Agriculture · Infrastructure. See topics for what is available now.
Compare the districts of Karnali
Every published census measure, side by side. Rank by any column, or select rows to compare a few.
| districts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surkhet | 415,126 | 97,893 | 82.7% | 312,939 | 378,340 |
| Dailekh | 252,313 | 54,610 | 75.5% | 170,256 | 225,508 |
| Salyan | 238,515 | 54,701 | 77.3% | 166,510 | 215,417 |
| Jajarkot | 189,360 | 37,466 | 75.5% | 126,648 | 167,750 |
| Rukum West | 166,740 | 37,303 | 75.7% | 113,762 | 150,201 |
| Kalikot | 145,292 | 26,779 | 72.7% | 93,570 | 128,678 |
| Jumla | 118,349 | 24,438 | 70.2% | 75,564 | 107,647 |
| Mugu | 64,549 | 12,439 | 68.1% | 39,225 | 57,609 |
| Humla | 55,394 | 11,228 | 63.8% | 31,491 | 49,325 |
| Dolpa | 42,774 | 9,398 | 67.0% | 26,229 | 39,136 |
Bars are scaled within each column, so columns compare places and rows compare measures. A dash means the figure is not published for that place, which is not the same as zero. Rates are not additive across places and are never totalled.
Sources & methodology
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2024) · United Nations Population Fund (2023) · National Statistics Office (2021) · Wikidata (2026) · World Bank (1960-2024)
Reusable under CC BY-IGO 3.0 and nso-official-statistics and CC0 1.0 and CC BY 4.0 with attribution. Retrieved 2026-08-23. Full metadata, caveats and revision history →