Datia District (Hindi: दतिया जिला) is in Gwalior Division in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The town of Datia is the district headquarters.
It is an ancient town, mentioned in the Mahabharata as Daityavakra. Datia had formerly been a state in the bundelkhand region. The ruling family were Rajputs of the Bundela clan; they descended from a younger son of a former raja of Orchha. The state was administered as part of the Bundelkhand agency of Central India. It lay in the extreme north-west of Bundelkhand, near Gwalior, and was surrounded on all sides by other princely states of Central India, except on the east where it bordered upon the United Provinces. It was second highest in the rank of all the Bundela states after Orchha, with a 15-gun salute, and its Maharajas bore the hereditary title of Second of the Princes of Bundelkhand. The land area of the state was 2130 mi² its population in 1901 was 173,759.
Datia, together with the rest of the Bundelkhand agency, became part of the new state of Vindhya Pradesh in 1950. In 1956, Vindhya Pradesh state was merged with certain other areas to form the state of Madhya Pradesh within the Union of India.
In 2011, Datia had population of 786,754 of which male and female were 420,157 and 366,597 respectively The district has an area of 2,902 km², and a population 627,818 (2001 census). The population of Datia District increased by 26% from 1981 to 1991, and by 22% from 1991 to 2001. The district has 445 villages and 4 towns, Datia, Seondha, Bhander and Indergarh. Each town is the headquarters of its tehsil.
Datia is bounded by the Madhya Pradesh districts of Bhind to the north, Gwalior to the west, and Shivpuri to the south, and by Jhansi District of Uttar Pradesh state to the east. The district is part of Gwalior Division.
