Lower Kohistan District

Lower Kohistan District (کوہستان, ) is a district in the Hazara Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Pattan is the district headquarters of Lower Kohistan.

Overview and history
Until 2014, this district was part of the large Kohistan district. In 2014, the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bifurcated Kohistan District into the Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan districts. At that time, Lower Kohistan comprised two tehsils: Palas and Pattan. However, the tehsil of Palas was separated from the district of Lower Kohistan as another district. It was named as Kolai-Palas. On 31 May 2018, Ranovali Pinkhad, previously part of Pattan tehsil, was made a separate tehsil.

Demographics
At the time of the 2017 census, the district had a population of 202,502. Lower Kohistan had a sex ratio of 862 females per 1000 males. The entire population was rural. 34.64% of the population was under 10 years of age. 8 people in the district were from religious minorities.

83.77% of the population belonged to Dardic peoples speaking one of the many Kohistani languages as their first language. 15.63% were Pashto speakers.

Administrative Units
Lower Kohistan comprises two Tehsils:


 * Pattan
 * Ranolia Bankad (also spelled as Ranola)