The district occupies an area of 290 square kilometres (110 sq mi),[2] spread over 12 non-contiguous enclaves lying on or near the Bay of Bengal within a compact area in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Villianur and Mannadipet, and rural area of Bahour taluk consists of two communes, viz.

[5] Pondicherry and Uzhavarkarai are the municipalities, Kurumbapet is the gram panchayat and the 3 census towns are: Ariyankuppam, Manavely and Villianur.

Planning and Research Department, Government of Puducherry, further defines the notion of a block.

[9] Puducherry's population, 950,289,[3] is roughly equal to that of the nation of Fiji[10] or the US state of Delaware.