Previously, the territorial headquarters were in Panjim when it was jointly administered as Goa, Daman, and Diu until the time of the Konkani language agitation.

The city of Surat lies to the north, and Mumbai is approximately 160 km (100 mi) to the south in the Konkan division of Maharashtra.

Coins of Bhumaka and Nahapan, the Kshaharata rulers, were discovered in the surrounding areas of Surat District.

Ushavadatta, son-in-law of Nahapan, is said to have provided ferries on the rivers Dhanuha, Dhamana, Parada, and Tapi.

[5] This is the earliest reference to these rivers, and the names of the places, i.e., Dahanu, Daman, and Pardi, have remained unchanged for the last 2,000 years.

[6] Rudraman I, grandson of Chastan of the Kadamaka branch of Kshatrapas, reconquered a large part of western India, including the seaboard from the river Mahi in Gujarat to Ratnagiri, around 150 AD from the Satavahana ruler, Satakarni.

Abhir king Ishwarasena of Nasik, who conquered the western part of the Deccan from the Satavahanas, seems to have been succeeded by Gautamiputra Yajna Sri, who campaigned against the Kshatrapas from 180 to 200 AD.

[8] Govinda III handed over the Lata kingdom to his brother Indra around 808 AD, giving him the title Lateswaramandalasya or the Protector of Latamandala.

Tailappa II placed the Lata country in the hands of his relative and general Barrpa alias Dvarappa Chalukya.

By the middle of the 13th century, a Rajput prince named Ramsingh, also known as Ramashah, seems to have defeated the koli chief Nathorat and established himself in the hilly tract at Asheri of Asserseta near Daman around 1262.

The Dadra and Nagar Haveli landlocked parts of the Daman district were occupied by pro-Indian Union forces in 1954.

In 1961, Dadra and Nagar Haveli was officially annexed by India, forming a union territory separated from Daman.

On 3 November 2019, Daman Collector Rakesh Minhas issued a Section 144 order banning the peaceful assembly of four or more persons, slogan-shouting, and the use of loudspeakers across the entire district.

[14] The district has one of the least balanced sex ratio in the country,[citation needed] with 533 females for every 1,000 males,[14] and a literacy rate of 88.06%.