A study on the cognitive development of urban and rural pre-school children conducted in Dharwad block of Karnataka State revealed that urban children were superior in the cognitive development as compared to rural children. The study also revealed that there was a relationship between age of the children and cognitive development. Children belong­ing to older age group occupied high position in all the aspects of cognitive development. The cognitive development of male and female children did not differ significantly. The mean score value of cognitive development of female children was slightly high in verbal, identification and recognition abilities. But there was not much difference in the concept formation, performance, thinking and memory power abilities of boys and girls.