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Upper Chitral District توری ݯھیترارو ضلع‎ ضلع چترال بالا
District
Top: Karambar Lake Qaqlasht Meadows above Buni
Location in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Division	Malakand
Established	2018
Headquarters	Buni
Government
• Type	District Administration
• Deputy Commissioner	Mr. Muhammad Irfan Uddin PMS (BPS-18)
• District Police Officer	Shah Jahan (BPS-18 PSP)
• District Health Officer	N/A
Area
• District	8,392 km (3,240 sq mi)
Population
• District	195,528
• Density	23/km (60/sq mi)
• Urban	0
• Rural	195,528
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Numbers of Tehsils	2
Website	upperchitral.kp.gov.pk

Upper Chitral District (Khowar: توری ݯھیترارو ضلع‎; Urdu: ضلع چترال بالا‎) is an administrative district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Kho people are the dominant ethnic group in the district, forming 99.84% of the total population.

Chitral River flows across the length of the district. Upper Chitral District along with Lower Chitral District were part of the erstwhile Chitral District which was the largest district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, covering an area of 14,850 km. Previously, it formed part of the Chitral princely state that encompassed the region until its incorporation into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in 14 August 1947. The erstwhile Chitral District was bifurcated into Upper Chitral and Lower Chitral Districts in November 2018.

The town of Buni is the headquarters of the Chitral Upper District. It shares a border with Gilgit-Baltistan to the east, with Badakshan province of Afghanistan to the north and with the Upper Dir District to the southwest and with Swat District to the southeast. A narrow strip of Wakhan Corridor separates Chitral from Tajikistan in the north.

Climate

Chitral has a warm steppe climate influenced by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Summers are pleasantly warm without ever getting too hot. Winters are extremely cold; longer periods with subzero temperatures are not uncommon. Precipitation figures here are higher than in other regions in Pakistan.

Demographics

As of the 2023 census, Upper Chitral district has 26,365 households and a population of 195,528. The district has a sex ratio of 105.75 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 73.83%: 84.87% for males and 62.11% for females. 44,351 (22.73% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. The entire population lives in rural areas.

In the 2023 census, 782 (0.40% of the surveyed population) people were from religious minorities, half Christians and half 'Other' religions.

99.84% of the population spoke languages recorded as 'Other' on the census. The main language is Khowar, sometimes called Chitrali, spoken by the Dardi Kho. Wakhi is spoken in the northern regions along the Afghan border.

Administrative Divisions

1. Buni Tehsil
2. Mastuj Tehsil
3. Torkhow/Mulkhow Tehsil

National Assembly

The district along with Lower Chitral District is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-1.

Provincial Assembly

The district along with Lower Chitral District is represented by one elected MPA in the provincial assembly who represent the following constituencies:PK-1

References

1. "District Administration Upper Chitral". Archived from the original on 31 October 2023.
2. ^ "7th Population and Housing Census - Detailed Results: Table 1" (PDF). www.pbscensus.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
3. ^ "Upper Chitral gets status of separate district". dawn.com. 21 November 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
4. "Upper Chitral gets the status of separate district". 21 November 2018.
5. "Population by administrative units 1951-1998" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
6. "7th Population and Housing Census - Detailed Results: Table 9" (PDF). www.pbscensus.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
7. "7th Population and Housing Census - Detailed Results: Table 11" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

v t e Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Provincial capital: Peshawar
Bannu	Bannu Lakki Marwat North Waziristan
Dera Ismail Khan	Dera Ismail Khan Tank Lower South Waziristan Upper South Waziristan
Hazara	Abbottabad Allai Battagram Haripur Kolai-Palas Upper Kohistan Lower Kohistan Mansehra Torghar
Kohat	Hangu Karak Kohat Kurram Orakzai
Malakand	Bajaur Buner Central Dir Lower Chitral Lower Dir Malakand Shangla Swat Upper Dir Upper Chitral
Mardan	Mardan Swabi
Peshawar	Charsadda Nowshera Peshawar Khyber Mohmand
Former	Chitral South Waziristan

• Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
• Upper Chitral District