Swat District

Swat District: Quick Answers

Swat District is one of the 38 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Malakand Division, with its headquarters at Gulkada (Babuzai tehsil). It has 4 tehsils: Babuzai, Kabal, Charbagh and Barikot. The 2023 census counted 1,557,030 people on 1,362 km², and 52.63% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.

Population

1,557,030 (2023 census)

Area

1,362 km² · 1,143.19 people per km²

Literacy rate (age 10+)

52.63%

Largest urban localities (2023)

Mingora 361,112 · Kabal 132,549 · Barri Kot 115,045

Tehsils

4 – Babuzai, Kabal, Charbagh and Barikot

Headquarters

Gulkada (Babuzai tehsil)

Division

Malakand Division

Province / territory

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Known for

Swat is the former princely state on the Swat River, known for its Buddhist archaeology and its role as one of Pakistan's most visited mountain valleys. In December 2025 the district was divided, with its Matta, Bahrain and Khwazakhela tehsils separated into a new Bar Swat (Upper Swat) district.

Culture

Yousafzai Swati culture, trout fishing and mountain crafts define daily life here.

Education

University of Swat and a wide network of colleges serve the remaining tehsils of Babuzai, Kabal, Charbagh and Barikot.

Healthcare

The Saidu Group of Teaching Hospitals in Saidu Sharif is the main referral centre.

Villages / local areas

Kabal and Barikot villages.

Swat District: 2023 census figures by tehsil

Name	Type	Population	Area (km²)	Urban	Literacy (10+)
Babuzai	Tehsil	696,697	297	51.83%	56.06%
Kabal	Tehsil	480,827	485	27.57%	49.26%
Charbagh	Tehsil	159,358	161	–	50.01%
Barikot	Tehsil	220,148	419	52.26%	50.87%

The 2023 census counted Swat and Bar Swat (Upper Swat) as one district (Swat). Since the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government notification of 27 January 2026, Swat District consists of Babuzai, Kabal, Charbagh and Barikot; the population and area shown are the sum of those units' 2023 census rows. Current tehsils: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government notification of 27 January 2026, reported by Dawn on 28 January 2026. Tehsils of Swat District →

Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Census 2023, Table 1. Checked 2026-09-29.

Swat is the long green valley of the Swat River, from the hot fields near Barikot up to the snow line at Kalam. People outside KP still call it the Switzerland of Pakistan. People who live here call the lower town Mingora, the old seat Saidu Sharif, and the rest by tehsil: Kabal, Matta, Khwaza Khela, Charbagh, Bahrain.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2023 counted 2,687,384 people in 381,212 households. About 794,000 of them are urban; the rest are rural. Literacy is 48.13 percent overall — 61.83 percent for men, 33.95 percent for women. Pashto is the mother tongue of about 2.48 million. Kohistani languages (Torwali, Kalami and related speech of the upper valley) are recorded in the tens of thousands. Area of the old district is 5,337 square kilometres.

Swat was a princely state until 1969. In late 2025 the provincial cabinet notified a split: lower tehsils staying as Swat (headquarters Gulkada / Babuzai) and upper tehsils as Bar Swat (headquarters Matta). This page still follows the 2023 seven-tehsil census table, because that is the last full PBS count. When the Bureau prints two separate district books, the atlas will split with it.

Largest Towns of the Swat Valley

1. Mingora (Babuzai tehsil) — the bazaar city. Courts, the Mingora Bench of the High Court, the bus yards and most private hospitals sit here. Saidu Sharif is next door: museums, the old palace area, and the name used as headquarters on many official papers.
2. Kabal — municipal council figures in recent compilations sit above one hundred thousand. Kanju airport is on this side of the river.
3. Matta — the main town of the east bank and the notified headquarters of Bar Swat. Second-heaviest tehsil after Babuzai in the 2023 table (552,431 people in the whole tehsil).

Bahrain / Madyan and Khwaza Khela are the next names you hear on a bus going up-valley.

Seven Tehsils of Undivided Swat (PBS 2023), Now Split Between Swat and Bar Swat

• Babuzai — 297 km², 696,697 people, literacy about 56 percent. Mingora, Saidu Sharif, Gulkada.
• Matta — 684 km², 552,431 people, literacy about 42.5 percent.
• Kabal — 485 km², 480,827 people, literacy about 49.3 percent.
• Khwaza Khela — 392 km², 307,300 people, literacy about 42.6 percent.
• Bahrain (Behrain) — 2,899 km², 270,623 people, literacy about 39.3 percent. Biggest tehsil by land, thinnest by density. Kalam sits in this tehsil.
• Barikot — 419 km², 220,148 people, literacy about 50.9 percent. Southern gate toward Malakand and Buner.
• Charbagh — 161 km², 159,358 people, literacy about 50 percent. Smallest tehsil.

Local government papers speak of about 65 union councils (56 rural, 9 urban) and, under the later village-council system, about 170 village councils and 44 neighbourhood councils. That is why nobody can honestly paste “all villages of Swat” on one screen. What follows are names that already sit on council lists, maps and school papers.

Babuzai — Mingora and Saidu

Mingora, Saidu Sharif, Gulkada, Odigram (Udegram), Manglawar, Sangota, Islampur, Panjigram, Qambar, Faizabad neighbourhoods of the city belt.

Kabal

Kabal, Kanju, Kanju Township, Kuza Bandai, Bara Bandai, Aligrama, Sirsinai (Sirsanai), Hazara / Maloch, Gul Jaba, Kabal Chindakhwara, Ningolai, Dherai, Taghma, Deolai.

Barikot

Barikot, Ghalegay / Ghaligay, Shamozo, Manyar, and the villages on the old road that drops toward the Malakand pass. Barikot is also the archaeological name for the ancient town on this bank of the river.

Charbagh

Charbagh, Gulibagh, and the compact union councils between Mingora and Khwaza Khela on the east-bank road.

Khwaza Khela (now Bar Swat District)

Khwaza Khela, Fatehpur, Shin, Miandam, and the side valleys that climb toward Malam Jabba.

Matta (now Bar Swat District)

Matta town, Gwalerai, Sakhra, Asharay, Bara Drushkhela, Kuza Drushkhela, Darmai, Rahat Kot, Kalakot, Peochar, Shawar, Sijbanr, Arkot, Shangowati, Jorra, Sherplam, Barthana, Aghal, Chinglalai, Venai.

Bahrain / upper Swat (now Bar Swat District)

Bahrain, Madyan, Kalam, Utror, Gabral, Mankyal, Kedam, Chail, Bashigram, Matiltan, Balakot (Swat), Ayeen, Aryane, Peshmal side settlements on the Kalam road. This is Swat Kohistan. Winter closes tracks that Mingora never sees.

Other names that appear on public photo and map lists: Malam Jabba, Fizagat on the river, Marghazar above Saidu, and the Buddhist sites at Butkara and Shingardar near the lower towns. Spellings jump (Bahrain / Behrain, Khwaza Khela / Khawaza Khela, Kuza Bandai / Koza Bandai). Both forms are the same place.

Education and Hospitals in Swat

University of Swat, the women’s campus, Swat Medical College, University of Agriculture Swat, and Government Postgraduate Jahanzeb College are the names students actually use. Government degree colleges sit in Saidu Sharif and the tehsil towns. The female literacy number — just under 34 percent — is the line that should stay on this page even when the tourism paragraphs get longer.

Saidu Group of Hospitals / the teaching cluster in Saidu Sharif is the main public referral. Private hospitals crowd Mingora. From Kalam or Peochar an ambulance still measures the trip in hours, not minutes.

Economy of Swat: Work and the River

Lower Swat farms wheat, maize, orchards and off-season vegetables. Upper Swat sells timber, potatoes and the tourist season. Hotels from Fizagat to Kalam are a winter-and-summer economy. After the flood years, many of those rooms had to be rebuilt. The river is the reason people come and the reason roads wash out.

Kanju (Saidu Sharif) airport is a short drive from Mingora. When flights run, they change the weekend crowd. When they do not, the road through Malakand is the only gate most families use.

Famous People from Swat

The Miangul house is the old state name. Miangul Abdul Wadud and Miangul Abdul Haq Jahan Zeb were the Walis. Jahanzeb College is the campus that still carries the second name. Miangul Aurangzeb and later members of the same family stayed in public life after the state ended in 1969.

Politics and law. Afzal Khan Lala. Mahmood Khan, former chief minister of KP. Murad Saeed. Nasirul Mulk, former Chief Justice of Pakistan, is listed from this valley. Those are assembly and court names, not a party poster.

School and the world’s name. Malala Yousafzai of Mingora, Nobel Peace Prize 2014. Ziauddin Yousafzai, her father, the school man. That chapter is already known. It does not need a second telling here.

Pashto verse and radio. Laiq Zada Laiq. Parvesh Shaheen. Rahim Shah Rahim. Fazal Rabi Rahi. Ibrahim Shabnam. Zubair Torwali works on Torwali speech in the upper valley. These are the literature names Swat notes already print.

Showbiz. Nazia Iqbal, Pashto singer. Ghazala Javed, Pashto singer, killed in 2012. Rahim Shah, singer. Badar Munir, film actor. They are the screen and cassette names. Ghazala’s murder is public record. This page names it. It does not turn it into a plot.

Sport. Anwar Ali and Ihsanullah — first-class and international cricket names tied to Swat in current lists.

Swat: What this page will not do

It will not list 170 village councils as if they were 170 complete household registers. It will not pretend the 2025 split already has two finished PBS books. It will not write tourism slogans in place of the literacy table. Add a kally name when you live there. That is how Buner was written and how Swat should grow.

Sources: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2023 district and tehsil tables; PILDAT Swat district profile; KP local-government village-council annexes; named-settlement and municipal council lists in the public record. Last checked August 2026.