[citation needed] Siddharthnagar district comprises five tehsils or sub-divisions each headed by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM): These Tehsils are further divided into 14 Blocks, each headed by a Block Development Officer (BDO):[2] According to the 2011 census, Siddharthnagar district has a population of 2,559,297,[5] roughly equal to the nation of Kuwait[6] or the US state of Nevada.

[5] At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 80.51% of the population in the district spoke Hindi, 10.06% Bhojpuri, 4.73% Urdu and 4.61% Awadhi as their first language.

[9] Some scholars have suggested that modern-day Piprahwa-Ganwaria was the site of the ancient city of Kapilavastu, the capital of the Shakya kingdom,[10][11][12][13] where Siddhartha Gautama spent the first 29 years of his life, referring to Buddhist texts such as the Pāli Canon.

[14] Others suggest that the original site of Kapilavastu is located 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to the northwest, at Tilaurakot, in what is currently Kapilvastu District in Nepal.

Otherwise, it is surrounded by other districts of Uttar Pradesh: Maharajganj on the east, Basti and Sant Kabir Nagar on the south, and Balrampur on the west.