Division headquarters · cantonment city · four tehsils including former FR Kohat · 1,234,661 people in 2023
Kohat District is one of the 38 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with its headquarters at Kohat. The 2023 census lists 4 administrative units in it: Darra Adam Khel, Gumbat, Kohat and Lachi. The 2023 census counted 1,234,661 people on 2,991 km², and 58.55% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.
| Name | Type | Population | Area (km²) | Urban | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darra Adam Khel | Sub-division | 139,839 | 446 | – | 58.9% |
| Gumbat | Tehsil | 124,530 | 503 | – | 54.55% |
| Kohat | Tehsil | 817,610 | 911 | 28.85% | 58.19% |
| Lachi | Tehsil | 152,682 | 1,131 | 28.07% | 63.39% |
Kohat is the garrison town of southern Peshawar Division’s old road toward Hangu and Karak. The cantonment is a counted place of its own (about 31,000 in the 2023 urban list, slightly down from 2017). The municipal city is larger. Together they make the urban core. Lachi, Gumbat and Dara Adam Khel are the other three administrative pieces. Dara Adam Khel was Frontier Region Kohat before the merger. It is now a tehsil of this district, not a separate agency file.
Pashto is the main speech. Hindko is heard in the city in a way you do not hear it in Karak. The two sit in the same market. Do not flatten that into one label.
Households 169,679. Population 1,234,661. Area about 2,991 km². Urban about 278,700. Literacy 58.55 percent overall — 76.38 percent for men, 40.28 percent for women. Under-tens about 334,000 (27 percent). Sex ratio about 104 men per 100 women.
Lachi town council is a small urban row (about 23,800). The heavy urban number lives in Kohat tehsil, not in Gumbat.
Kohat tehsil — 911 km², 817,610 people, about 897 per km², literacy about 58.2 percent. Two-thirds of the district live here. City, cantonment, Kohat Medical College, DHQ / teaching cluster.
Lachi tehsil — 1,131 km², 152,682 people, only about 135 per km², literacy about 63.4 percent — the highest of the four in that table. Largest land, thin settlement. Type-D / THQ lists include Lachi.
Dara Adam Khel — 446 km², 139,839 people, literacy about 58.9 percent. Former FR. The 2023 tongue row is almost all Pashto (139,515 of 139,839). Counted as rural in that compilation. The name is famous for reasons this page does not need to advertise. The live questions are schools and a working hospital, same as any other tehsil.
Gumbat tehsil — 503 km², 124,530 people, literacy about 54.6 percent. Smallest population of the four.
Kohat University of Science and Technology and Kohat Medical College are the degree names. Cadet College Kohat is a separate boarding campus. DHQ Kohat and the teaching side take referrals from Hangu and Karak when those DHQs send a case on. THQ / Type-D cover at Lachi and Gumbat is the first stop for those tehsils.
Tanda Dam is the local reservoir name. It is water supply and picnic ground, not a second Tarbela.
Sources: PBS 2023; tehsil literacy rows; urban list for Kohat cantonment and Lachi TC; Dara Adam Khel tongue table. September 2026.
The 2023 census counted 1,234,661 people in Kohat District, up from 1,111,266 in 2017 (annual growth 1.78%). 22.58% of the population lived in urban areas.
Kohat District covers 2,991 km² according to the 2023 census, a density of 412.79 people per km².
The 2023 census lists 4 urban localities in Kohat District: Kohat (204,829, municipal committee), Kohat Cantonment (31,051, cantonment), Lachi (23,843, town committee) and Shakardara (19,018, town committee).
58.55% of people aged 10 and over were literate in the 2023 census (male 76.38%, female 40.28%).
The most common mother tongue in the 2023 census was Pashto (85.9% of the 1,234,579 people in the mother-tongue table), followed by Hindko (12.43%).
Kohat District is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its headquarters is Kohat.