Former agency (1973) · two seats of government, Kalaya and Ghiljo · 387,561 people in 2023
Orakzai District is one of the 38 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with its headquarters at Kalaya. It has 4 tehsils: Central, Ismail Zai, Lower and Upper. The 2023 census counted 387,561 people on 1,538 km², and 33.57% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.
| Name | Type | Population | Area (km²) | Urban | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Tehsil | 92,819 | 399 | – | 34.79% |
| Ismail Zai | Tehsil | 39,328 | 275 | – | 34.2% |
| Lower | Tehsil | 125,944 | 565 | – | 41.86% |
| Upper | Tehsil | 129,470 | 299 | – | 23.98% |
Orakzai is the hill district between Hangu and Kurram. It does not hold a famous pass town like Landi Kotal. It does not hold a river city like Nowshera. It holds two administrative names: Kalaya for Lower Orakzai and Ghiljo for Upper Orakzai. The tribe name is the district name. Pashto is the language. Until 2018 this was an agency of FATA, created as its own agency in 1973. The merger put a deputy commissioner where a political agent had sat. The valleys did not flatten.
Sections people name in Lower Orakzai talk include Sepoy, Bar Muhammad Khel, Mani Khel, Feroz Khel, Utman Khel, Bezoti and Stori Khel. That is a living map, not a tourist list. A Shia minority lives in parts of the district; most households are Sunni. This page will not turn that fact into a pamphlet.
Households 52,104. Population 387,561. Area 1,538 km². Literacy 33.57 percent — 50.70 percent for men, 14.97 percent for women. Under-tens about 138,000 (36 percent). Sex ratio about 112 men per 100 women — a high male tilt next to Lower Dir. The 2017 count was about 254,000. The jump to 2023 is steep. Return after years of leaving, and a young population, both sit inside that line. Neither cause alone explains it.
Kalaya is the place a master-plan draft treats as the urban knot of Lower Orakzai. Older census rows still printed much of the district as rural. Use both: a bazaar exists; it is not Peshawar.
Upper Orakzai — about 299 km² in some tables, 129,470 people, literacy about 24 percent. Ghiljo side. Lowest literacy of the four.
Lower Orakzai — 565 km², 125,944 people, literacy about 41.9 percent. Kalaya. Highest literacy of the four. Largest land.
Central Orakzai — 399 km², 92,819 people, literacy about 34.8 percent.
Ismailzai — 275 km², 39,328 people, literacy about 34.2 percent. Smallest count.
Forty-six union councils appear on some local lists. That is councils, not 46 finished village books.
Hangu and Kohat are the towns people use for a specialist hospital and a degree exam. During the years when armed groups sat in these hills, and when army operations cleared them, families went out to Hangu, Kohat and Peshawar the same way North Waziristan families went to Bannu. This page will not replay those campaigns. It will say the return is why a 2023 count can look larger than 2017, and why a school that stays open in Upper Orakzai is the test of the new district.
Female literacy at 15 percent is the education line. DHQ-level care is still thin. A girls’ high school in Kalaya does not automatically reach Ismailzai.
Sources: PBS 2023; tehsil literacy rows; 1973
This guide covers Orakzai district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and distinguishes the current district designation from the historical term Orakzai Agency.
Orakzai District has 4 tehsils: Central, Ismail Zai, Lower and Upper.
The 2023 census counted 387,561 people in Orakzai District, up from 254,303 in 2017 (annual growth 7.3%). 0% of the population lived in urban areas.
Orakzai District covers 1,538 km² according to the 2023 census, a density of 251.99 people per km².
Entirely rural: the 2023 census counted no urban population in Orakzai District, so all 387,561 residents were enumerated in rural areas.
33.57% of people aged 10 and over were literate in the 2023 census (male 50.7%, female 14.97%).
The most common mother tongue in the 2023 census was Pashto (99.87% of the 387,561 people in the mother-tongue table).
Orakzai District is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its headquarters is Kalaya.