The Madhesh Economic Map
8 districts · 136 local governments
Every published economic figure we could find for Madhesh Province, in one comparable place — and, just as deliberately, the figures nobody publishes at all.
Where enterprise is registered
Districts shaded by registered establishments for every 1,000 residents. Parsa, with Birgunj, has the most; Rautahat the fewest — a spread of about one and a half times across the province.
Schematic: the eight districts in geographic order, west to east. Not to scale, and not a boundary map. Establishments are from the 2018 Economic Census; population is from the 2021 Census, so the ratio combines two years — a Madhesh Next calculation, not an official figure.
Compare the eight districts
Click any column heading to sort. Every figure is copied from a published official source; nothing here is estimated by us.
| District | Population 2021 | Households 2021 | Establishments 2018 | Persons engaged 2018 | Est. per 1,000 people | Absent abroad 2021 | Agricultural holdings 2021/22 | Local levels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saptari सप्तरी | 706,255 | 146,816 | 16,295 | 42,252 | 23.1 | 33,510 | 104,660 | 18 |
| Siraha सिराहा | 739,953 | 148,549 | 13,137 | 40,513 | 17.8 | 56,491 | 104,943 | 17 |
| Dhanusha धनुषा | 867,747 | 177,091 | 17,965 | 56,475 | 20.7 | 73,688 | 105,255 | 18 |
| Mahottari महोत्तरी | 705,838 | 137,886 | 14,049 | 36,998 | 19.9 | 52,674 | 87,062 | 15 |
| Sarlahi सर्लाही | 862,470 | 164,824 | 15,260 | 38,657 | 17.7 | 35,084 | 105,230 | 20 |
| Rautahat रौतहट | 813,573 | 137,025 | 12,790 | 41,265 | 15.7 | 23,892 | 86,835 | 18 |
| Bara बारा | 743,975 | 131,179 | 12,449 | 48,724 | 16.7 | 17,357 | 84,138 | 16 |
| Parsa पर्सा | 654,471 | 113,013 | 15,725 | 50,110 | 24.0 | 11,590 | 60,217 | 14 |
Agricultural holdings are sample-based estimates from the 2021/22 agriculture census and should be read as estimates. Persons engaged includes working owners and unpaid family workers, not only employees.
The other half of the map
What nobody publishes
Everything above describes structure — how many people, households, farms and firms exist. None of it answers the questions a citizen actually needs answered about the last twelve months.
Jobs created last year
No local government in Madhesh Province publishes an annual count of jobs created.
New businesses registered last year
Registrations are recorded municipality by municipality, but not published or compared.
Days to register and open a business
No municipality publishes how long its own process actually takes.
Share of budget spent on economic development
Budgets are published; the share going to economic development is not broken out comparably.
Every district scores the same on these four, because the numbers are missing everywhere. That is not a data problem to be solved quietly by researchers. It is the argument.
Sources
National Economic Census 2018, Central Bureau of Statistics (2020) Source
National Population and Housing Census 2021, National Statistics Office Source
National Sample Census of Agriculture 2021/22, National Statistics Office (2024) — sample-based estimates Source
Madhesh Province budget, FY 2083/84: Rs 41.13 billion (capital Rs 26.47 bn, recurrent Rs 14.66 bn) — Ministry of Finance, Madhesh Province, budget speech of 15 June 2026, as reported in the national press. Provincial GDP, FY 2082/83: Rs 863 billion, 13.1% of national GDP — National Statistics Office preliminary estimate, 21 May 2026.
Found an error, or a published figure we have missed? Write to hello@madheshnext.org and we will correct the page and say what changed.
This map is unfinished on purpose
136 local governments still have no economic profile. Building them, one municipality at a time, is what a district chapter actually does.