MAP STORIES · CENSUS 2023
Pakistan’s largest census districts
How population is distributed across the district entries in this snapshot.
Published 10 September 2026 · Subay Pakistan · Data analysis
- Lahore13,004,135
- Faisalabad9,075,819
- Rawalpindi6,118,911
- Gujranwala5,959,750
- Rahim Yar Khan5,564,703
- Multan5,362,305
- Muzaffargarh5,015,325
- Peshawar4,758,762
- Sialkot4,499,394
- Sargodha4,334,448
How to read this
These are district totals, not city or metropolitan populations. A city may span several districts. Karachi’s district entries, for example, should not be mistaken for one whole-city figure.
Where is Karachi?
Karachi is not missing. This ranking lists individual census district entries, not whole cities or metropolitan regions. In the 2023 snapshot, Karachi appears as seven entries: Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi South, Karachi West, Keamari, Korangi and Malir.
Added together, those seven Karachi entries total about 20.38 million people, which is larger than Lahore district. They are shown separately here because the census dataset treats them as separate district records.
Explore the underlying figures
Compare districts yourself, browse all district profiles, or download the source snapshot. Census figures are from PBS through PakPC2023; proposal grouping is by Subay Pakistan.
Administrative models do not change identity: Baloch remain Baloch, Punjabi remain Punjabi, Sindhi remain Sindhi, Pashtun remain Pashtun, and everyone keeps its cultural and regional identity.
This is a dated census analysis, not a live population estimate.