Swat District (, ) was an administrative district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan from 1969 to 2025. The district was known for its natural sites, the district was a popular tourist destination. It had a population of 2,687,384 per the 2023 national census, and was the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the time.
Swat District was centred on the Swat Valley, usually referred to simply as Swat, which is a natural geographic region surrounding the Swat River.
History
In 1947, following the Partition of British India and subsequent independence of Pakistan, Swat princely state acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan continuing as a self-governing princely state until it was officially annexed and merged into West Pakistan and later became a part of North-West Frontier Province (later Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in 1969, forming the Swat district. The former tehsil of Buner was granted the status of a separate district in 1991. Shangla was separated into a district in 1995.
In October 2025, the government divided the Swat District into two, the Upper Swat District and (lower) Swat District.
Geography
Swat's total area was . Swat District consisted of two well-defined geographic regions, Swat Kohistan and Swat Proper. Swat Kohistan formed the larger, northern part of the district, while Swat Proper formed the lower portion of the district. In terms of administrative divisions, Swat was surrounded by Chitral, Upper Dir and Lower Dir to the west, Gilgit-Baltistan to the north, and Kohistan, Buner and Shangla to the east and southeast, respectively.
Demographics
As of the 2023 census, Swat district had 381,212 households and a population of 2,687,384. The district had a sex ratio of 104.83 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 48.13%: 61.83% for males and 33.95% for females. 808,888 (30.11% of the surveyed population) were under 10 years of age. 794,368 (29.56%) lived in urban areas.