Headquarters Chitral town · Two tehsils · 2023 population 320,407 · Split from old Chitral District with Upper Chitral
Lower Chitral is the town-and-Drosh half of the old Chitral district, in the valley below Trich Mir. The Kho are the largest community. Khowar is what most houses speak. Pashto is stronger toward Drosh. Kalasha is spoken in a small set of valleys that the rest of Pakistan already knows by name.
PBS 2023: 320,407 people, 46,028 households, area about 6,458 km². Literacy 66.10 percent overall — 76.81 percent for men, 54.77 percent for women. About 57,000 people are counted as urban. District site: lowerchitral.kp.gov.pk. The Lowari Tunnel changed the winter calendar; it did not flatten the side valleys.
Chitral town is the headquarters. Drosh is the second pole. Ayun is the junction people use for the Kalash valleys (Bumburet, Rumbur, Birir). Those valley names belong on this page because they are in the lower district; they are not a separate tehsil in the 2023 table.
Do not list every hamlet on the Lotkoh and Garam Chashma side as if the patwari book were on this screen. Add a village when you live there.
University of Chitral and the government colleges in town are the degree names. DHQ Chitral is the first hospital. From Drosh or the Kalash side an ambulance still measures time in hours if the weather turns. Female literacy at about 55 percent is high next to Bajaur; winter still cuts attendance in the side valleys.
Sources: PBS 2023; KP Lower Chitral; tehsil tables for Chitral and Drosh. Last checked September 2026.