Mansehra District (Urdu, ) is a district in the Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan. The city of Mansehra serves as the headquarters of the district.
Mansehra was established as an independent district in 1976. It was previously a tehsil within the broader Hazara District. In 1993, a former subdivision of Mansehra, Battagram, was separated as an independent district. Similarly, in 2011, another subdivision of Mansehra, Kala Dhaka, was separated which is now known as Torghar District.
Demographics
Population
As of the 2023 census, Mansehra district has 294,052 households and a population of 1,797,177. The district has a sex ratio of 103.08 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 63.79%: 75.33% for males and 52.02% for females. 478,985 (26.76% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 154,834 (8.62%) live in urban areas.
Ethnic groups
Gujar is the largest ethnic group of the Mansehra district, forming a simple majority. Other main ethnic groups of Mansehra include Kohistani, Tanoli, Mughal,
Other languages
Other minor languages are spoken by 12.14%. These languages include Gujari, Mankiyali and a few others. Many of these, especially in the upper Kaghan Valley, are speakers of the Kohistani dialects. There are also speakers of the widely dispersed Gujari language, particularly in the Kaghan Valley. The local variety is intermediate between the eastern dialects of Gujari (spoken in Azad Kashmir) and the western group (spoken inChitral, Swat and Gilgit). There is also a small community in the village of Dana in Oghi Tehsil who speak the endangered Mankiyali language.
Religions
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Religion in contemporary Mansehra District
! rowspan="2" |Religious<br>group
! colspan="2" |1941
! colspan="2" |2017
! colspan="2" |2023
|-
!
!
!
!
!
!
|-
| Islam 15px
|293,231
|97.79%
| 1,555,315
|99.97%
|1,785,071
|99.75%
|-
| Hinduism 15px
|5,431
|1.81%
|28
|~0%
|39
|~0%
|-
| Sikhism 15px
|1,174
|0.39%
|
|
|31
|~0%
|-
| Christianity 15px
|22
|0.01%
|163
|0.01%
|3,986
|0.22%
|-
|Other
|0
|~0%
|236
|0.02%
|497
|0.03%
|-
! Total Population
!299,858
!100%
! 1,555,742
!100%
!1,789,624
!100%
|- class="sortbottom"
| colspan="7" |
|}
Constituencies
The district is represented in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by elected MPAs who represent the following constituencies:
Constituency and current member :
- PK-36 (Mansehra-I), Munir Lughmani Swati
- PK-37 (Manshera-II), Babar Saleem Swati
- PK 38 (Mansehra III), Zahid Chanzeb Swati
- PK 39 (Mansehra IV), Ikram Ghazi Tanoli
- PK 40 (Mansehra V), Sardar Shah Jahan
The district is represented in the National Assembly of Pakistan by two elected MNAs who represent the following constituencies:
- NA-14 (Mansehra-I)
- NA-15 (Mansehra Torghar), Shahzada Gustasip Khan Swati
Administrative divisions
thumb|200px|right|Administrative subdivisions of Mansehra District plus district Kala Dhaka (Torghar)
Mansehra District consists of six tehsils, with Tanawal Tehsil separated from the other five in December 2022. The area comprising present-day Mansehra District historically consisted of two regions: Pakhal, known as the country of the Swati tribe, and Tanawal, the territory of the Tanoli tribe.
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers static-row-header-hash"
!Tehsil
!Name
(Urdu)
!Area
(km<sup>2</sup>)
!Pop.
(2023)
!Density
(ppl/km<sup>2</sup>)
(2023)
!Literacy rate
(2023)
!Union Councils
|-
|Baffa Pakhal
|()
|640
|460,090
|718.89
|60.85%
|
|-
|Bala Kot Tehsil
|()
|2,376
|310,339
|130.61
|67.50%
|
|-
|Darband
|()