Uttar Pradesh

Coordinates: 26°51′N 80°55′E / 26.85, 80.91

Uttar Pradesh (Hindi: उत्तर प्रदेश, Urdu: اتر پردیش, translation: Northern Province, IPA: , pronunciation U.P.], is the most populous and fifth largest state in the Republic of India. With a population exceeding that of France, Germany, and the Netherlands combined, it is the most populous sub-national division in the world. U.P. is also possibly the state with the largest number of million-plus cities (at least eight).

Uttar Pradesh covers a large part of the highly fertile and densely populated upper Gangetic plain. Located in North India, it shares an international border with Nepal and is bounded by the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. The administrative and legislative capital of Uttar Pradesh is Lucknow, and the financial and industrial capital is Kanpur. The state's high court is based at Allahabad. Other notable cities in Uttar Pradesh include Bijnor, Jhansi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Agra, Varanasi (Banaras), Allahabad, Bareilly, Meerut, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Mathura and NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority).