Puducherry district, formerly Pondicherry district is one of the four districts of the union territory of Puducherry in southern India. The district occupies an area of 290 square kilometres (110 sq mi), spread over 11 non-contiguous enclaves lying on or near the Bay of Bengal within a compact area in the state of Tamil Nadu. According to the 2011 census, the district has a population of 946,600.
For administrative purpose, the union territory of Puducherry is divided into eight taluks. Four of these, viz. Puducherry, Ozhukarai, Villianur and Bahour, together constitute Puducherry district. Among these four, only Ozhukarai taluk does not contain any rural area. The rural areas under the other three taluks are further divided commune panchayats (CP) or simply communes. Rural area of Puducherry taluk is covered by a single commune – Ariyankuppam, whereas Villianur taluk has two communes, viz. Villianur and Mannadipet, and rural area of Bahour taluk consists of two communes, viz. Bahour and Nettapakkam.
Census 2011 has identified three census towns in Puducherry district, along with three existing statutory towns.Pondicherry and Ozhukarai are the municipalities, Kurumbapet is the gram panchayat and the 3 census towns are: Ariyankuppam, Manavely and Villianur. Puducherry urban agglomeration consists of the area under the all these six towns along with Odiampet, which is considered as urban outgrowth of Kurumbapet.