Dera Ghazi Khan District

Its capital is the Dera Ghazi Khan city.

Dera Ghazi Khan District ضلع ڈيره غازى خان ضلع ڈیرا غازی خان ضلع دیرہ غازی خان ڈیرہ غازی خان دمگ
District of Punjab
Top to bottom: Shrine of Mullah Qaid Shah, Hills of Fort Munro.
Map of Dera Ghazi Khan District
Country	Pakistan
Province	Punjab
Division	Dera Ghazi Khan
Headquarters	Dera Ghazi Khan
Government
• Type	District Administration
• Deputy Commissioner	Sardar Abdullah Dasti
• District Police Officer	N/A
• District Health Officer	N/A
Area
• Total	11,294 km2 (4,361 sq mi)
Population  (2023)
• Total	3,393,705
• Density	300/km2 (780/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Number of Tehsils	3
Website	dgkhan.punjab.gov.pk

The district lies to the west of the Indus River. The Sulaiman Mountains rise to a height of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the north of the district. Popular tourist destinations are Fort Munro, Yakbai Hill station and Mubarki top.

The district is divided into three tehsils which are divided into a total of sixty Union Councils:

Dera Ghazi Khan Tehsil

Dera Ghazi Khan Tehsil, an administrative subdivision of the district. The city of Dera Ghazi Khan is itself administratively subdivided into seven Union Councils.

 

The region around Dera Ghazi Khan was inhabited by Mallian people in late antiquity . Then it was part of wide Multan region in medieval era (700-1500 CE). The town of Dera Ghazi Khan was founded at the close of the 15th century and named after Nawab Ghazi Khan Mirani, son of Nawab Haji Khan Mirani, the city was founded when Shah Hussain of the Langah Sultanate of Multan invited the Baloch people to settle the region. Together with two other Deras i.e. settlements, Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Fateh Khan, it gave its name to Derajat. Derajat eventually came into the possession of the British after the Sikh War in 1849 and was divided into two districts: Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan. After the independence, many of the city's Hindu residents settled in Derawal Nagar colony of Delhi, India. The district of Rajanpur was later carved out of the Dera Ghazi Khan district.

Based on the surveys of 2004–2005, Dera Ghazi Khan district is considered one of the 20 poorest districts of Pakistan with about 51% of its population living under the poverty line.

At the time of the 2017 census, Dera Ghazi Khan district had 339,202 households and a population of 2,872,631. Dera Ghazi Khan had a sex ratio of 979 females per 1000 males and a literacy rate of 46.67% - 59.15% for males and 34.26% for females. 546,221 (19.01%) lived in urban areas. 979,674 (34.10%) were under 10 years of age. In 2023, the district had 454,711 households and a population of 3,393,705.

Religion

As per the 2017 census, the vast majority of the population was Muslim and made up nearly the entire population with 99.89%. Ahmadis made up the largest minority (0.09%) with Christians and Hindus making up the rest.

Religious groups in Dera Ghazi Khan District (British Punjab province era)

Religious group	1901		1911		1921		1931		1941
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
Islam	412,012	87.45%	442,234	88.47%	411,431	87.72%	432,911	88.16%	512,678	88.19%
Hinduism	57,815	12.27%	56,485	11.3%	56,346	12.01%	57,217	11.65%	67,407	11.59%
Sikhism	1,027	0.22%	1,042	0.21%	932	0.2%	760	0.15%	1,072	0.18%
Christianity	152	0.03%	76	0.02%	47	0.01%	31	0.01%	87	0.01%
Jainism	143	0.03%	23	0%	296	0.06%	125	0.03%	106	0.02%
Zoroastrianism	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Buddhism	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Judaism	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Others	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Total population	471,149	100%	499,860	100%	469,052	100%	491,044	100%	581,350	100%
Note: British Punjab province era district borders are not an exact match in the present-day due to various bifurcations to district borders — which since created new districts — throughout the historic Punjab Province region during the post-independence era that have taken into account population increases.

Languages

At the time of the 2017 census, 81.00% of the population spoke Saraiki, 14.69% Balochi and 2.59% Urdu as their first language.

• Farooq Leghari, former President of Pakistan
• Usman Buzdar, former Chief Minister of Punjab