Sahiwal Division · code 044 · named for a tamarisk
Okara District is one of the 41 districts of Punjab, with its headquarters at Okara. It has 3 tehsils: Depalpur, Okara and Renala Khurd. The 2023 census counted 3,515,490 people on 4,377 km², and 60.25% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.
| Name | Type | Population | Area (km²) | Urban | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depalpur | Tehsil | 1,592,201 | 2,502 | 28.98% | 55.29% |
| Okara | Tehsil | 1,393,746 | 1,241 | 44.91% | 63.34% |
| Renala Khurd | Tehsil | 529,543 | 634 | 18.89% | 66.98% |
Okara is a farm ledger that grew a city. The name is local talk for the okaan, the tamarisk that marked the waste before the Lower Bari Doab Canal made squares of it. In 1982 the gazette cut Okara, Depalpur and Renala Khurd away from Sahiwal.
The 2023 census counted 3,515,490 people in 549,724 households on 4,377 km². Urban 1,187,504. Literacy 60.25 percent — 66.52 among men, 53.71 among women. Punjabi first. Phone 044.
Depalpur — 2,502 km², 1,592,201 people, literacy 55.29 percent. Haveli Lakha, Basirpur, Hujra Shah Muqeem.
Okara tehsil — 1,241 km², 1,393,746 people, literacy 63.34 percent. Headquarters and cantonment edge.
Renala Khurd — 634 km², 529,543 people, literacy 66.98 percent. Stud farm and the Mitchell’s orchard stretch.
Potato made Okara a national noun. Cane, wheat, maize, rice, citrus. Mitchell’s Fruit Farms at Renala. The stud at Renala: horses, then dairy, then the tenant file.
British remount and dairy farms passed to the Pakistan Army. In the 2000s tenants organised as Anjuman Mazarin against a shift from share of crop toward cash rent. The argument is part of how the district is known — next to the potato, not instead of it.
Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal led an uprising on the Neeli Bar. He was killed. The story is taught here as local pride.
Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, of the Depalpur side, was chief minister of Punjab in the 1990s. Hujra Shah Muqeem keeps a shrine calendar. The potato merchant is less photographed and more numerous.
Census 2023. Canal and farm notes from the Montgomery–Sahiwal gazette and the published tenant record.
The 7th Population and Housing Census (2023) by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) counted 3,515,490 people in Okara District — 1,789,744 males and 1,725,411 females (sex ratio 103.73 males per 100 females). The 2017 census had counted 3,040,826, so the district gained 474,664 people in six years (difference calculated from the two PBS totals), an average annual growth rate of 2.45%. The district covers 4,377 km², giving a density of 803.17 people per km²; 33.78% of residents live in urban areas and the average household has 6.3 members.
| Tehsil / area | 2017 | 2023 | Annual growth % | Area km² | Density /km² | Sex ratio | Household size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depalpur Tehsil | 1,375,785 | 1,592,201 | 2.47 | 2,502 | 636.37 | 103.80 | 6.2 |
| Okara Tehsil | 1,206,319 | 1,393,746 | 2.44 | 1,241 | 1123.08 | 103.67 | 6.4 |
| Renala Khurd Tehsil | 458,722 | 529,543 | 2.43 | 634 | 835.24 | 103.67 | 6.6 |
PBS reports a literacy rate (age 10+) of 60.25% for Okara District: 66.52% for males and 53.71% for females, 72.36% in urban areas against 53.88% in rural areas. Of 2,544,906 residents aged 10 and over, 1,533,378 were literate. The census also counted 264,889 children aged 5–16 who were out of school (131,165 boys and 133,715 girls).
| Tehsil / area | Literacy % | Male % | Female % | Urban % | Rural % | Out-of-school (5–16) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depalpur Tehsil | 55.29 | 62.22 | 48.05 | 67.28 | 50.24 | 134,713 |
| Okara Tehsil | 63.34 | 69.01 | 57.40 | 75.11 | 53.39 | 98,317 |
| Renala Khurd Tehsil | 66.98 | 72.86 | 60.88 | 78.56 | 64.25 | 31,859 |
PBS Table 2 lists 9 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.
Okara District has 3 tehsils: Depalpur, Okara and Renala Khurd.
The 2023 census counted 3,515,490 people in Okara District, up from 3,040,826 in 2017 (annual growth 2.45%). 33.78% of the population lived in urban areas.
Okara District covers 4,377 km² according to the 2023 census, a density of 803.17 people per km².
The 2023 census lists 9 urban localities in Okara District: Okara (533,693, municipal corporation), Depalpur (122,759, municipal committee), Haveli Lakha Wasawewala (122,389, municipal committee), Renala Khurd (100,054, municipal committee), Hujra Shah Muqeem (95,921, municipal committee), Okara Cantonment (65,590, cantonment), Basirpur (65,541, town committee), Mandi Ahmad Abad (54,860, town committee) and Bangla Gogera (26,697, town committee).
60.25% of people aged 10 and over were literate in the 2023 census (male 66.52%, female 53.71%).
The most common mother tongue in the 2023 census was Punjabi (94.16% of the 3,503,451 people in the mother-tongue table), followed by Urdu (4.64%).
Okara District is in Punjab. Its headquarters is Okara.