[1][3] It is the home district of Tajuddin Ahmad, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh and has been a prominent centre of battles and movements throughout history.

Gazipur is home to the Bishwa Ijtema, the second-largest annual Muslim gathering in the world with over 5 million attendees.

The ancient city of Dholsamudra in present-day Gazipur served as one of the capitals of the Buddhist Pala Empire.

In the sixth century, forts were built in Toke and Ekdala which continued to be used as late as the Mughal Period.

The area became known as a strategic region with the establishment of more forts such as that of Karnapur, the digging of the Twin Ponds in 1045.

[3] During the reign of the Sultan of Bengal Alauddin Husain Shah (1494-1519), an Islamic scholar known as Shaykh Muhammad ibn Yazdan Bakhsh Bengali visited Ekdala where he transcribed Sahih al-Bukhari and gifted it to the Sultan in nearby Sonargaon.

The first armed resistance of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War took place in Gazipur on 19 March 1971.

Gazipur District had a literacy rate (age 7 and over) of 81.42%, compared to the national average of 74.80%, and a sex ratio of 923 females per 1000 males.