Headquarters Dir · split from old Dir in 1996 · 1,083,566 people in 2023 · Lowari road toward Chitral
Upper Dir District is one of the 38 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with its headquarters at Dir. It has 4 sub-divisions: Dir, Larjum, Sharingal and Wari. The 2023 census counted 1,083,566 people on 3,699 km², and 46.77% of residents aged 10 and over were literate.
| Name | Type | Population | Area (km²) | Urban | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dir | Sub-division | 384,667 | 1,012 | 12.44% | 48.26% |
| Larjum | Sub-division | 119,396 | 1,039 | – | 52.59% |
| Sharingal | Sub-division | 210,356 | 1,140 | – | 37.15% |
| Wari | Sub-division | 369,147 | 508 | – | 48.56% |
Upper Dir is the high half of the old Dir state. Dir town is the headquarters. Sharingal climbs toward Lowari. Barawal and Kalkot are extra tehsil titles on some maps. Wari was the heavy southern tehsil on the 2023 sheet; in January 2023 the province notified Central Dir with Wari as a seat. Until PBS prints two clean books, Wari’s 369,147 people still sit in the Upper Dir extract used here.
Pashto is the language. Wari tehsil’s 2023 row is 368,041 Pashto speakers out of 369,147. Yusufzai settlement of this valley is the old story. The Nawab’s house is the political story before 1969, when Dir state ended and the district system began. In 1996 the district itself was cut into Upper and Lower.
Households 149,536. Population 1,083,566. Literacy 46.77 percent — 62.76 percent for men, 31.67 percent for women. Under-tens about 392,000 (36 percent). Sex ratio about 98 men per 100 women — more women than men, like Lower Dir. Dir town council is about 47,800 in the 2023 urban list. The rest of the count is valley and ridge.
Dir — 1,012 km², 384,667 people, literacy about 48.3 percent. Headquarters tehsil.
Wari — 369,147 people, all rural in that table. Largest single tehsil count on the old Upper Dir sheet. Now also the Central Dir name.
Sharingal (Shringal) — 1,140 km², 210,356 people, literacy about 37.2 percent. Lowari side.
Larjum — 119,396 people in the 2023 compilation (carved from Dir tehsil on some maps).
Barawal and Kalkot are titles without a full row in the same extract.
This is not Swabi’s singer list. The public names from Upper Dir are mostly state and assembly names.
Muhammad Sharif Khan was declared Nawab of Dir in 1898; Aurangzeb Khan followed. Their house ruled until the state was merged. After that the names that appear in election tables are the MNAs and MPAs: Molana Asadullah (2002), Najmuddin Khan (2008), Junaid Akbar / later seats, Sahibzada Sibghatullah (2018). The 2024 provincial rows print Gul Ibrahim Khan, Muhammad Yamin and Muhammad Anwar Khan for the Upper Dir seats. Dr Zia ul Haq appears in district notes as a university vice-chancellor from this district. That is the published list. No row of poets is added to match another district.
Lowari Tunnel is the Chitral road this district is known for. When it closes, Sharingal waits. Government colleges sit in Dir town. Students still go to Timergara and Peshawar for professional seats. DHQ Upper Dir is the first hospital. Female literacy at 32 percent is the education line.
Sources: PBS 2023; tehsil rows for Dir, Wari, Sharingal and Larjum; 1996 split and January 2023 Central Dir notification; published Nawab and assembly lists. September 2026.
Upper Dir District has 4 sub-divisions: Dir, Larjum, Sharingal and Wari.
The 2023 census counted 1,083,566 people in Upper Dir District, up from 947,401 in 2017 (annual growth 2.27%). 4.42% of the population lived in urban areas.
Upper Dir District covers 3,699 km² according to the 2023 census, a density of 292.93 people per km².
The 2023 census lists 1 urban locality in Upper Dir District: Dir (47,842, town committee).
46.77% of people aged 10 and over were literate in the 2023 census (male 62.76%, female 31.67%).
The most common mother tongue in the 2023 census was Pashto (91.02% of the 1,082,416 people in the mother-tongue table), followed by Kohistani (5.11%).
Upper Dir District is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its headquarters is Dir.