Lodhran District ( skr, ), is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

in the province of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, Pakistan, with the city of

Lodhran Lodhran ( ur, ), is a city and the capital of Lodhran District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is Pakistan's 81st largest city. It is located on the northern side of River Sutlej The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the ...

as its capital. Located on the northern side of the River

Sutlej The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...

, it is bounded to the north by the districts of

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

Khanewal Khanewal () is a city and the capital of Khanewal District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the 36th largest city of Pakistan by population. Khanewal is named after the earliest settlers here who belonged to the caste ‘Daha’ (A Sub ...

and

Vehari Vehari also spelled Vihari (), is a city and the headquarters of Vehari District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is Pakistan's 62nd largest city. Vehari is about from the historical city of Multan. Vehari is located at the Multan-Delhi ...

, to the south by

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

, to the east lie the districts of Vehari and Bahawalpur; while district Multan lies on the western side. Lodhran was split off as a separate district from

in 1991. It has the lowest

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

of all districts in Punjab, and is among the thirty poorest districts in Pakistan. It is a well-known cotton-growing area.

Administrative divisions

Lodhran District is spread over an area of 1,790 square kilometres and is subdivided into three

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

s (

, Kahror Pakka and

Dunyapur Lodhran District ( skr, ), is a district in the province of Punjab, Pakistan, with the city of Lodhran as its capital. Located on the northern side of the River Sutlej, it is bounded to the north by the districts of Multan, Khanewal and Veh ...

) which contain a total of 73 Union Councils:Tehsils & Unions in the District of Lodhran - Government of Pakistan

Demographics

At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 1,699,693, of which 861,394 were males and 838,156 females. Rural population is 1,434,092 while the urban population is 265,601. The literacy rate was 49.88%.

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

are almost the entire population with 99.76%. At the time of the 2017 census, 74.23% of the population spoke Saraiki, 15.65% Punjabi and 9.03%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

The most widely spoken first language is Saraiki (%), which is used by the major indigenous social groups of the Joiya ,baloach,

Arain Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi agricultural tribe with strong political identity and organisation, found mainly in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh with a small population in parts of Indian Punjab, Uttar Pradesh a ...

rya Rya or RYA may refer to: Biology * Rya sheep, breed of sheep native to Sweden * ''Rya'', a genus in subfamily Blennocampinae People * Rya Kihlstedt (born 1970), American actress * Rya W. Zobel (born 1931), judge of the United States District Cou ...

Kanju, Uttera/Uttero, Ghallu, Bhutta, Lodhra, Metla, Chaner Syed,

Qureshi Qureshi (also known as Qureyshi, Quraishi, Qurayshi, Qureshy, Quraishy, Qoraishi, Qoreshi, Koraishi, Kureshi, Kureshy, Kureishi, Coreish) is a Muslim family name. In English it has many spellings, in Arabic is spelled "", which means part of the ...

Tareen The Tareen (or Tarin) ( ps, ترین) is a Pashtun tribe inhabiting southern Afghanistan, and western region of Pakistan.Caroe O. ''The Pathans 550 B.C.- A.D. 1957'' Oxford University Press . Page 521.Muhammad Hyat Khan, "Hayat i Afghan" (Orig. i ...

and

Pathan Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

. Additionally, Punjabi is spoken by about %, primarily by two groups: descendants of the ''aabaadkaar'': settlers from elsewhere in Punjab who arrived in the first half of the 20th century to cultivate the canal colonies, as well as by Muhajirs from the

and

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and su ...

groups who migrated from the territories that became modern India at the time of

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

in 1947. The major Muhajir group, however, are

Rajputs Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

, also known as Rangarr, from the

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

region, who are speakers of

Haryanvi Haryanvi ( ' or '), also known as Bangru, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the state of Haryana in India, and to a lesser extent in Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which also includes Kharibo ...

(also known as Rangri). The percentage of the district's population who declared

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Mughal. Additionally, the nomadic Od are speakers of the

Od language Od, also known as Oad or Odki, is an Indo-Aryan language of India and Pakistan. It is spoken by around 2 million people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, New Delhi, Punjab and Sindh. It has similarities to Marathi language, Marathi, with features a ...

, while

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

(0.2%) is spoken by

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

Education

Lodhran has a total of 828 government schools out of which 59 percent (487 schools) are for girl students. The district has an enrolment of 146,345 in public sector schools. Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Campus has been ranked as the 8th top university of Pakistan by Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2019 and is the 2nd largest University of Punjab.

References

{{Authority control Districts of Punjab, Pakistan