Headquarters Mardan city · Five tehsils in the 2023 tables · Population 2,744,898
Mardan District is one of the 38 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with its headquarters at Mardan. It has 5 tehsils: Ghari Kapoora, Katlang, Mardan, Rustam and Takht Bhai. The 2023 census counted 2,744,898 people on 1,632 km², and 55.79% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.
| Name | Type | Population | Area (km²) | Urban | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghari Kapoora | Tehsil | 319,465 | 143 | – | 51.7% |
| Katlang | Tehsil | 377,535 | 422 | – | 61.47% |
| Mardan | Tehsil | 1,040,893 | 335 | 35.38% | 56.41% |
| Rustam | Tehsil | 279,527 | 379 | – | 49.98% |
| Takht Bhai | Tehsil | 727,478 | 353 | 11.69% | 56.02% |
Mardan is the crowded Yusufzai plain between Peshawar and Swabi, with the hills of Katlang and Rustam on the north toward Buner and Ambela. The city is the division headquarters. The land is canal-and-tube-well farm country: sugarcane, tobacco, wheat and the mills that sit on the Nowshera–Mardan–Swabi road.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2023 counted 2,744,898 people in 400,859 households. About 453,000 are urban; about 2.29 million are rural. Literacy is 55.79 percent overall — 68.31 percent for men, 42.66 percent for women. Area is about 1,632 square kilometres. Pashto is the everyday language of almost the whole district.
Older planning papers still talk of three tehsils. The 2023 table used here has five: Mardan, Takht Bhai, Katlang, Rustam and Ghari Kapura (Garhi Kapura).
Union-council counts have moved with each local-government act. This page lists towns and villages that already sit on maps, TMAs and school lists. It does not invent a complete patwari register.
Mardan city, Hoti, Toru, Bakhshali, Palo Dheri, Sheikh Maltoon Town, the cantonment, and the villages on the canal roads out toward Swabi and Nowshera.
Takht Bhai town, Lund Khwar, Shergarh, Hathian, and the villages under the monastery ridge. Jamal Garhi and Sawal Dher are the other well-known archaeological names in this belt.
Katlang, Mian Khan, and the hill-foot villages that look toward Buner.
Garhi Kapura / Ghari Kapura and the dense rural councils of this small tehsil.
Rustam town and the villages on the old road that climbs toward Ambela and Chamla. This is the Mardan side of the pass that Buner people use.
Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) is the degree name students use. Mardan Medical Complex / the teaching hospital is the main public referral for the division. Government colleges sit in the city and in Takht Bhai and Katlang. Girls’ secondary enrolment is stronger here than in the high valleys, but the 42.66 percent female literacy figure is still the honest line.
Sugar mills, cigarette leaf, grain markets and the workshop road toward Nowshera pay a large share of wages. Takht-i-Bahi is the site that brings visitors who never stop in the city bazaar. The ruins need a page that says “protected monument”, not a picnic caption.
Sources: PBS 2023 district and tehsil tables; Government of KP District Mardan; TMA Takht Bhai public pages; named-settlement lists. Last checked August 2026.
The 7th Population and Housing Census (2023) by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) counted 2,744,898 people in Mardan District — 1,408,776 males and 1,336,069 females (sex ratio 105.44 males per 100 females). The 2017 census had counted 2,373,399, so the district gained 371,499 people in six years (difference calculated from the two PBS totals), an average annual growth rate of 2.46%. The district covers 1,632 km², giving a density of 1681.92 people per km²; 16.52% of residents live in urban areas and the average household has 6.8 members.
| Tehsil / area | 2017 | 2023 | Annual growth % | Area km² | Density /km² | Sex ratio | Household size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghari Kapoora Tehsil | 266,290 | 319,465 | 3.09 | 143 | 2234.02 | 103.36 | 6.5 |
| Katlang Tehsil | 316,506 | 377,535 | 2.99 | 422 | 894.63 | 104.22 | 7.4 |
| Mardan Tehsil | 921,581 | 1,040,893 | 2.06 | 335 | 3107.14 | 107.61 | 6.8 |
| Rustam Tehsil | 241,850 | 279,527 | 2.45 | 379 | 737.54 | 101.64 | 6.8 |
| Takht Bhai Tehsil | 627,172 | 727,478 | 2.51 | 353 | 2060.84 | 105.42 | 6.7 |
PBS reports a literacy rate (age 10+) of 55.79% for Mardan District: 68.31% for males and 42.66% for females, 63.59% in urban areas against 54.19% in rural areas. Of 1,954,332 residents aged 10 and over, 1,090,251 were literate. The census also counted 230,969 children aged 5–16 who were out of school (97,752 boys and 133,215 girls).
| Tehsil / area | Literacy % | Male % | Female % | Urban % | Rural % | Out-of-school (5–16) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghari Kapoora Tehsil | 51.70 | 66.22 | 36.89 | — | 51.70 | 31,500 |
| Katlang Tehsil | 61.47 | 75.22 | 47.36 | — | 61.47 | 25,558 |
| Mardan Tehsil | 56.41 | 68.14 | 43.83 | 63.90 | 52.17 | 87,814 |
| Rustam Tehsil | 49.98 | 65.18 | 34.68 | — | 49.98 | 27,830 |
| Takht Bhai Tehsil | 56.02 | 67.14 | 44.33 | 62.18 | 55.19 | 58,267 |
PBS Table 2 lists 3 urban localities in the district (MC = municipal committee, TC = town committee):
Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Census 2023 — Table 1, Table 2, Table 12. Figures checked against the PBS tables on 2026-10-07.
Mardan District has 5 tehsils: Ghari Kapoora, Katlang, Mardan, Rustam and Takht Bhai.
The 2023 census counted 2,744,898 people in Mardan District, up from 2,373,399 in 2017 (annual growth 2.46%). 16.52% of the population lived in urban areas.
Mardan District covers 1,632 km² according to the 2023 census, a density of 1,681.92 people per km².
The 2023 census lists 3 urban localities in Mardan District: Mardan (363,788, municipal committee), Takht Bhai (85,040, municipal committee) and Mardan Cantonment (4,514, cantonment).
55.79% of people aged 10 and over were literate in the 2023 census (male 68.31%, female 42.66%).
The most common mother tongue in the 2023 census was Pashto (99.07% of the 2,740,692 people in the mother-tongue table).
Mardan District is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its headquarters is Mardan.
In Mardan District, on a 152-metre hill about 16 km northwest of Mardan city. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)