Lahore Division · janam asthan · district since 2005
Nankana Sahib District is one of the 41 districts of Punjab, with its headquarters at Nankana Sahib. It has 3 tehsils: Nankana Sahib, Sangla Hill and Shah Kot. The 2023 census counted 1,634,871 people on 2,216 km², and 63.12% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.
| Name | Type | Population | Area (km²) | Urban | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nankana Sahib | Tehsil | 1,065,063 | 1,662 | 12.21% | 59.02% |
| Sangla Hill | Tehsil | 269,993 | 223 | 38.41% | 72.08% |
| Shah Kot | Tehsil | 299,815 | 331 | 29.9% | 69.28% |
Before the gazette called it a district it was a village with too many names. Rai Bhoi di Talwandi. Then Nankana, because a boy born in 1469 to Mehta Kalu and Mata Tripta grew into Guru Nanak, and the place took his name the way a family takes a child. The present district, cut from Sheikhupura in 2005, sits west of Lahore and east of Faisalabad on canal squares.
The 2023 census counted 1,634,871 people in 246,956 households on about 2,216 km². Urban 323,388. Rural 1,311,483. Literacy 63.12 percent — 68.38 among men, 57.63 among women. Punjabi is the first language of almost the whole sheet.
Nankana Sahib tehsil — 1,662 km², 1,065,063 people, literacy 59.02 percent. Headquarters, gurdwaras, Warburton, Mangtanwala, Syedwala, Mandi Faizabad.
Sangla Hill — 223 km², 269,993 people, literacy 72.08 percent.
Shahkot — 331 km², 299,815 people, literacy 69.28 percent. Toward the Faisalabad side.
Rice mills, textile rooms, brick kilns, a sugar mill. Wheat and rice write the year.
Guru Nanak was born here in 1469. Janamsakhi traditions often place the day in Baisakh; later observance settled on the Kartik full moon. Baba Dharam Chand is credited with an early shrine. Maharaja Ranjit Singh raised the present Gurdwara Janam Asthan and endowed the langar. Around it: Patti Sahib, Bal Lila, Kiara Sahib, Mal Ji Sahib, Tambu Sahib. Rai Bular Bhatti is the local chief of the birth stories; the Rai line still contests seats.
Akali reformers came to take the shrine from Udasi mahant Narayan Das. His men opened fire. Counts differ — official figures in the eighties, later Sikh counts commonly 140 to 260. Taught as Saka Nankana Sahib. Keys passed to the Shiromani committee. The town still marks the date.
1947 emptied the Sikh mohallas. The gurdwaras stayed under later Evacuee Trust and board care. Organised jathas from India return on protocol days. Kartarpur took some newer traffic after 2019. Nankana remains the birth address. A local Muslim town lives around that address without becoming it.
Sir Ganga Ram is claimed by Mangtanwala, now in this district; his working life was Lahore. Babra Sharif took the film name from this soil. Mohammad Irfan is the tall fast bowler. Ijaz Shah and Barjees Tahir are federal names. Shizra Mansab Ali Khan and the Rai Mansab house sit on provincial rolls.
Degree colleges, DHQ at headquarters, THQs at Shahkot and Sangla Hill. Serious medicine still means Lahore or Faisalabad. About 91 km to Lahore, about 75 toward Faisalabad.
Figures from the 2023 census. Shrine and 1921 notes from published gurdwara histories. Names from public records.
Nankana Sahib District has 3 tehsils: Nankana Sahib, Sangla Hill and Shah Kot.
The 2023 census counted 1,634,871 people in Nankana Sahib District, up from 1,354,986 in 2017 (annual growth 3.19%). 19.78% of the population lived in urban areas.
Nankana Sahib District covers 2,216 km² according to the 2023 census, a density of 737.76 people per km².
The 2023 census lists 4 urban localities in Nankana Sahib District: Sangla Hill (103,709, municipal committee), Nankana (94,988, municipal committee), Shahkot (89,638, municipal committee) and Warburton (35,053, municipal committee).
63.12% of people aged 10 and over were literate in the 2023 census (male 68.38%, female 57.63%).
The most common mother tongue in the 2023 census was Punjabi (97.24% of the 1,634,871 people in the mother-tongue table), followed by Urdu (1.88%).
Nankana Sahib District is in Punjab. Its headquarters is Nankana Sahib.
Rai Bhoi di Talvandi, the town where Guru Nanak was born in 1469. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)