1901 to 2010 Districts have formed an integral part of civil administration in the subcontinent since colonial times. When the
North-West Frontier Province (the former name of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) formed in November 1901, it was divided into five "settled districts": Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara, Kohat, and Peshawar, and a "trans-border tract" of land which encompassed five "Political Agencies": Khyber, Kurram, Malakand, Tochi, and Wano. The four districts Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, and Peshawar were considered "Trans-Indus" districts. By the time of the
1941 census of
British India, Tochi Agency had been renamed "North Waziristan Agency", Wana Agency had been renamed "South Waziristan Agency", and two tehsils of Peshawar District (Mardan and Swabi) were split off to form Mardan District, which became the fifth "Trans-Indus" district. The six districts of the North-West Frontier Province had also all been given their own "
Frontier Regions", which were tribal areas that were under the control of the deputy commissioner of an adjacent district. In 1951, parts of Malakand Agency were split off to create the Mohmand Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
1954 to 1972 In 1954, the
One Unit policy that consolidated all of
West Pakistan into one province began. From 1954 to 1970, the North-West Frontier Province ceased to exist. The death of the province brought the rise of the area's first divisions (divisions had already existed in
Punjab and
East Bengal, but none of the other provinces had any divisions until One Unit). The area that once covered the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas was split among two divisions: Dera Ismail Khan Division and Peshawar Division. Dera Ismail Khan Division covered Bannu District, Dera Ismail Khan District, North Waziristan Agency, and South Waziristan Agency, and Peshawar Division covered Hazara District, Kohat District, Mardan District, Peshawar District, Kurram Agency, Khyber Agency, Malakand Agency, and Mohmand Agency. •
Malakand Division had been created between 1961 and 1972 using the area that covered most of the now-defunct Malakand Agency, and was split up into the districts of
Chitral,
Dir,
Malakand,
Shangla and
Swat; Hazara Division was created out of the area that covered the now-defunct Hazara District and parts of Swat District, in Malakand Division. Hazara Division was split up into three districts, which were Abbottabad District (formed out of Abbottabad, Amb, and Haripur Tehsils of Hazara District), Kohistan District (formed out of six tehsils of Swat District and eight union councils of Batagram Tehsil (in Hazara District), and Mansehra District (formed out of Batagram Tehsil (exc. eight union councils which were given to Kohistan District) and Mansehra Tehsil in Hazara District). the 25th district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These 25 districts (the 24 districts dating to 1998 and Torghar) were the only districts recorded as a part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the
2017 Census. This meant that by the time of the
2017 Census of Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had 25 districts (one more than in 1998) organized into seven divisions and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas had seven Political Agencies and six Frontier Regions. You can find a list of them below (districts and divisions which do not exist anymore are in
italic):
2017 to present In 2014,
Kohistan District was bifurcated into
Upper Kohistan District and
Lower Kohistan District, but tensions on the bifurcation did not resolve until late 2017 (after the 2017 census), when
Kolai-Palas District was formed as well. This meant that Kohistan District was still legally one administrative unit until after the time of the 2017 census (the bifurcation was delayed in light of the political tensions, and did not go through until late 2017, when Kohistan district was split into three districts). On 31 May 2018, the
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was put into force. This amendment merged the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas with the province of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and changes the province's borders and layout drastically. Each of the seven agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (
Bajaur,
Kurram,
Khyber,
Mohmand,
North Waziristan,
Orakzai, and
South Waziristan) was made into its own district and added into an adjacent division (Bajaur District became a part of
Malakand Division, Khyber and Mohmand Districts joined
Peshawar Division, Kurram and Orakzai Districts joined
Kohat Division, North Waziristan District joined
Bannu Division, and South Waziristan District joined
Dera Ismail Khan Division). The six
Frontier Regions joined the districts they were adjacent to (
Frontier Region Bannu was incorporated into Bannu District,
Frontier Region Kohat was incorporated into Kohat District etc.). In late 2018,
Chitral District, formerly the largest district in the province by area, was bifurcated into
Upper Chitral District, from Mastuj Tehsil, and
Lower Chitral District, from Chitral Tehsil. In 2022,
South Waziristan district was bifurcated into
Upper South Waziristan headquarter
Spinkai Karzai and
Lower South Waziristan headquarter
Wana. In January 2023, Alai was given full district status from the tehsil of Battagram. In January 2023,
Allai was elevated to full district status from the
Allai Tehsil of Battagram. In October 2025, the KP government divided the
Swat district into
Upper Swat District and at the same time created
Paharpur District from part of Dera Ismail Khan. == List of the Districts by area, population, density, literacy rate etc. ==