Lower Chitral District (Khowar: موڑی ݯھیترارو ضلع; Urdu: ضلع چترال زیریں) is a district in Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Kho people are the dominant ethnic group in the district, and almost 90% of the population speaks khowar as their mother tongue.
As of the 2023 census, Lower Chitral district has 46,028 households and a population of 320,407. The district has a sex ratio of 104.31 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 66.10%: 76.81% for males and 54.77% for females. 87,378 (27.46% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age. 57,157 (17.84%) live in urban areas.[2]
87.76% of the population speaks languages classified as 'Others', namely Khowar (or Chitrali), the dominant language of Chitral as a whole. Pashto is spoken in the southeast of the district by 9.36% of the population, while Kalasha is spoken by 1.59% of the population.[5] There are some speakers of the Madaklasht dialect, a Persian dialect which is considered a mix of Dari and Tajik.[6]
The district, along with Upper Chitral District, is represented by one elected MNA (Member of National Assembly) in the Pakistan National Assembly. Its constituency is NA-1.
↑"Introduction". lowerchitral.kp.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 23 May 2025. Retrieved 19 July 2025. Gujars: This is a nomad tribe that came from Dir, Swat, Hazara, Kohistan and Afghanistan during Katur rule and settled in the southern valleys of Chitral.
