Districts of Pakistan: The Complete 2026 Guide
How many districts, which is the largest, and how the map keeps changing — every fact verified against the latest 2026 counts.
Last updated: 11 October 2026
Quick answer: Pakistan has 173 districts as of 2026 (excluding Islamabad Capital Territory) — up from just 40 at independence. The breakdown: Punjab 41, Sindh 30, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 40, Balochistan 41 (The News, September 2026). The largest district by area is Chagai (44,748 km²); by population, Lahore (13 million). The count keeps shifting as new districts are notified — most recently in Balochistan’s 2026 reorganisation.
At a glance
Pakistan’s districts in numbers
Districts in 2026
Third tier of administration; first tier of local government. Up from 40 in 1947.
Divisions
Punjab 10, Sindh 7, KP 7, Balochistan 11 — the middle tier between province and district.
km² — Chagai
Largest district by area, in Balochistan. Smallest: Karachi Central, 69 km².
People — Lahore
Largest district by population (2023 census). Smallest: Harnai, 127,571.
Explainer
What exactly is a district?
Pakistan’s administration runs in tiers: province → division → district → tehsil → union council. The district is where government stops being abstract and starts being personal. Each district is headed by a deputy commissioner (DC) — the most powerful administrator most Pakistanis will ever deal with — supported by a district police officer, district courts, and departments for revenue, health and education. Below the district, tehsils (sub-districts) handle land revenue and local administration, and union councils are the smallest elected tier.
Districts are also the first tier of local government — the level at which elections, development budgets and service delivery actually touch citizens’ lives. That is why creating a new district is such a big deal: it means a new DC office, new courts, new jobs and a new headquarters town, usually after years of local campaigning. When Talagang became a district, or Keamari was carved out of Karachi, thousands of people’s daily relationship with the state changed overnight.
The headline number
The count: how many districts and why it changes
173. That is the most current figure for Pakistan’s districts as of 2026 (Wikipedia’s Districts of Pakistan, excluding the Islamabad Capital Territory). But treat any exact number with healthy scepticism: you will see 170, 172 and 176 quoted elsewhere, and none of them are exactly wrong. Pakistan creates new districts the way other countries rename streets — Punjab, KP and Balochistan have all notified new ones in recent years, usually by splitting large districts to bring administration closer to people.
The trajectory tells the story: 40 districts at independence in 1947, around 100 by the 1990s, and 173 today. Each new district gets a deputy commissioner, a district headquarters, courts and police — which is why creating one is both an administrative decision and a political event. Our straight answer on the district count and the full 2026 breakdown track the number in detail.
By province
Province-by-province breakdown
District and division counts per province (The News, September 2026).
| Province | Divisions | Districts | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punjab | 10 | 41 | Most districts; Lahore is the most populous district in the country |
| Sindh | 7 | 30 | Karachi’s districts include the country’s smallest by area |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | 7 | 40 | Grew after the 2018 FATA merger added the tribal districts |
| Balochistan | 11 | 41 | Most divisions after the 2026 reorganisation; Chagai is the largest district |
Beyond the four provinces: Gilgit-Baltistan has 14 districts and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has 10. The full district list organises every district by province.
Extremes
The largest and smallest districts
Chagai — largest by area
A desert expanse in western Balochistan, home to the Reko Diq copper-gold deposits and the site of Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests at Ras Koh. Bigger than Denmark.
Lahore — largest by population
More people than many countries (2023 census). The smallest by population is Harnai, Balochistan — 127,571.
Karachi Central — smallest by area
One of Karachi’s urban districts (Nazimabad area): 69 square kilometres holding millions — the densest patch of administration in Pakistan.
Why extremes matter
A district can be a desert the size of a European country or a city neighbourhood. That range is why “district government” means wildly different things in Chagai and Karachi.
Names you know
Famous districts and why
Lahore
Pakistan’s most populous district — the cultural capital, Badshahi Mosque, food streets, and more people than 100+ countries.
Karachi’s districts
Seven districts (East, West, South, Central, Malir, Korangi, Keamari) run the country’s economic engine — and include its smallest district by area.
Chagai
44,748 km² of desert holding Reko Diq’s copper-gold riches and the Ras Koh hills where Pakistan tested its nuclear devices in 1998.
Gwadar
The deep-sea port district at the heart of CPEC — a fishing town being remade into a trade corridor terminus.
Swat & Hunza
Swat (KP) and Hunza (GB) — the valley districts that anchor Pakistan’s tourism boom, from Malam Jabba’s slopes to Attabad’s blue lake.
Multan & Peshawar
Among the world’s oldest living cities — Multan the city of saints, Peshawar the gateway of empires — each the heart of its district.
In the news
Districts that made headlines
Balochistan’s big redraw
Eleven divisions, 41 districts — new names like Hub, Wadh, Surab, Tump, Taftan and Barshore appear on the map as oversized older districts are split for better governance.
Punjab’s new districts
Talagang, Murree, Kot Addu and Wazirabad join the list — Murree giving the hill station its own administration, Talagang ending a decades-long campaign.
Keamari, Karachi’s seventh
Carved out of Karachi West, Keamari became Sindh’s newest district — covering the port, SITE industrial area and some of the city’s densest neighbourhoods.
The FATA merger
The 25th Amendment merged the tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, adding North and South Waziristan, Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber and Mohmand as full districts — the biggest single jump in the count’s history.
The middle tier
Divisions: the middle tier
Between province and district sits the division, headed by a commissioner. Pakistan has 35 divisions — up from 8 at independence. Divisions were abolished nationwide in 2000 under the devolution plan, then restored in 2008–2011 when the commissioner system returned. The abolition was part of General Musharraf’s devolution plan, which pushed power down to districts and tehsils; the restoration reflected a feeling that provinces needed the middle tier back to coordinate across districts. Today each division is headed by a commissioner — a senior civil servant who supervises the deputy commissioners of the division’s districts, handles revenue appeals, and coordinates development spending. For citizens the division is mostly invisible, but for the bureaucracy it is the essential hinge between Lahore or Karachi or Quetta or Peshawar and the district offices where the real work happens. The traditional exam answer for the largest division is Kalat Division (140,612 km²) in Balochistan; by population it is Lahore Division. But the 2026 reorganisation reshuffled the deck — see below. The full story is in our largest division guide.
2026
The 2026 Balochistan reorganisation
In 2026 Balochistan carried out a major administrative reorganisation, taking the province to 11 divisions and 41 districts (The News, September 2026). The old giant divisions were split: the historic Kalat Division’s territory is now spread across new divisions including Khuzdar, Lasbela and others, while Rakhshan Division — Chagai, Washuk, Nushki, Kharan and Taftan districts, 98,596 km² — emerged as the largest of the current divisions. New districts such as Hub, Wadh, Surab, Tump, Taftan, Barshore, Quetta East and Quetta West reflect the splitting of older, oversized districts. Expect the other provinces to keep redrawing their own maps — the only constant in Pakistan’s district count is change.
The reorganisation also settled a long-running debate about where the south of Balochistan belongs: the Makran coast districts (Gwadar, Kech, Panjgur, Tump) now form their own Makuran Division headquartered at Turbat, giving the CPEC corridor its own administrative focus, while the north-eastern districts were grouped into Loralai, Zhob and Koh-e-Sulaiman divisions that reflect tribal and geographic realities on the ground.
Curiosity
How districts get their names
Most districts are named after their headquarters town — Lahore, Multan, Quetta, Peshawar. Some honour history: Shaheed Benazirabad (formerly Nawabshah) was renamed for Benazir Bhutto; Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan recall their founders. New districts often take the name of the town that campaigned for them — Talagang, Wazirabad, Keamari. And a few names carry the land itself: Tharparkar (the Thar desert), Kohistan (the mountains), Lasbela (the Las plain). Read a district list and you are reading a thousand years of geography, conquest and local pride.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How many districts are there in Pakistan in 2026?
173, according to the most current count (Wikipedia, 2026), excluding the Islamabad Capital Territory. Figures between 170 and 176 appear in different sources because new districts are notified regularly — most recently in Balochistan’s 2026 reorganisation. The breakdown: Punjab 41, Sindh 30, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 40, Balochistan 41 (The News, September 2026).
Which is the largest district of Pakistan by area?
Chagai in Balochistan — 44,748 square kilometres, bigger than many countries. The smallest is Karachi Central (Nazimabad) in Sindh at just 69 square kilometres.
Which is the largest district of Pakistan by population?
Lahore in Punjab, with 13,004,135 people in the 2023 census. The smallest is Harnai in Balochistan, with 127,571.
Which is the largest division of Pakistan?
By area, the traditional answer is Kalat Division in Balochistan (140,612 sq km). But Balochistan’s 2026 reorganisation split the old divisions into 11 — among the current ones, Rakhshan Division (98,596 sq km) is the largest. By population, Lahore Division is the largest.
How many divisions are there in Pakistan?
35 in total: Punjab 10, Sindh 7, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 7, Balochistan 11 (after the 2026 reorganisation). At independence there were just 8.
What is a district in Pakistan’s administration?
Districts are the third tier of administration — below provinces and divisions — but the first tier of local government. Each district is headed by a deputy commissioner and divided into tehsils and union councils.
Explore Pakistan, district by district
Maps, geography and the land behind the numbers — in our Pakistan Geography section.
District counts are drawn from Wikipedia’s Districts of Pakistan (2026) and The News (September 2026); census figures from the 2023 census. Counts change as new districts are notified — confirm current figures with the relevant provincial government before citing officially. Maintained by the Feature Pakistan research desk.