Shimla district, known as Simla district until 1972, is one of the twelve districts of the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Its headquarters is the state capital of Shimla. Neighbouring districts are Mandi and Kullu in the north, Kinnaur in the east, Uttarakhand in the southeast, Solan to the southwest and Sirmaur in the south. The elevation of the district ranges from to . Shimla district culturally is part of the Mahasu region.
As of 2011, it is the third most populated district of Himachal Pradesh (out of 12), after Kangra and Mandi. It is the most urbanized district of Himachal Pradesh.
Shimla district was part of Mahasu district which included Shimla, Solan and Kinnaur districts. Kinnaur was carved out on 1st May 1969 out of Mahasu district and Shimla and Solan districts were made separate districts out of Mahasu district on 1st September 1972. Shimla district was obtained by the British as Mahasu district which included aforementioned districts also in 1815.
Shimla is connected by road to all the major towns. Distance between the major towns and Shimla:
According to the 2011 census, the district had a population of 814,010. This gives it a ranking of 483rd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 12.67%. Shimla has a sex ratio of 915 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 83.64%. 24.74% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 26.51% and 1.08% of the population respectively.
At the time of the 2011 census of India, 67.61% of the population recorded their language as Pahari, 20.31% Hindi, 4.63% Nepali, 1.39% Punjabi and 1.05% Kangri as their first language.