Lahore Division is an administrative division of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Province,

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It comprises four Districts -

Kasur Kasur (Punjabi language, Punjabi / ; ; also Romanization, romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word ''Qasr'' meaning "palaces" or "forts") is a city to the south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. The city s ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

Nankana Sahib Nankana Sahib (; ) is a city and capital of Nankana Sahib District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is named after the first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak, who was born in the city and first began preaching here. Nankana Sahib is among ...

and

Sheikhupura Sheikhupura (Punjabi language, Punjabi / ; ) also known as Qila Sheikhupura, is a city and district in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. Founded by the Mughal Empire, Mughal Emperor Jahangir in 1607, Sheikhupura is the List of ...

. The Lahore Division is commanded by a Commissioner to manage the division. Under the Commissioner there are four Additional Commissioners. For each district there is a Deputy Commissioner. Under the reforms of 2000, this tier of government was abolished, but in 2008 divisions were restored.

History

Lahore Division was originally an administrative division of the Punjab Province of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. It extended along the right bank of the

Sutlej River The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of th ...

from the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

Multan division Multan Division is an administrative division of Punjab Province, Pakistan. It was created during British colonial rule in South Asia in the 19th century. It includes 4 districts: Khanewal, Lodhran, Vehari and Multan and 15 Tehsils. Its reco ...

, and comprised the six districts of

Sialkot Sialkot (Punjabi language, Punjabi, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of the Sialkot District and the List of most populous cities in Pakistan, 12th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined ...

Gujranwala Gujranwala is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fourth most-populous city in the Pakistani province of Punjab. Located in northern-central Punjab's Rachna Doab, it serves as the headquarters of its Gujranwala District, epony ...

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

Gurdaspur Gurdaspur is a city in the Majha region of the Indian state of Punjab, between the rivers Beas and Ravi. It houses the administrative headquarters of Gurdaspur District and is in the geographical centre of the district, which shares a bord ...

and Gujrat. The total area of the division was and the population according to the 1901 census of India was 5,598,463. The commissioner for the division also exercised political control over the hill state of Chamba. The Commissioner's headquarters were at

and Dalhousie.The total population of the Division increased from 4,696,636 in 1881 to 5,321,535 in 1891, and 5,598,463 in 1901. The total area was , and the density of population was 326 persons per square mile, compared with 208 for British territory in the Province as a whole. In 1901 Muslims numbered 3,332,175, or 60 percent of the total; while other religions included Hindus, 1,567,402; Sikhs, 661,320; Jains, 5,5,07; Buddhists, 6; Parsis, 228; and Christians, 31,815, of whom 25,248 were natives. The division contained six districts: Gurdaspur included a few square miles of mountainous country, enclosing the hill station of Dalhousie (highest, point, 7,687 feet) ; but otherwise the Division was flat. It contained 9,869 villages and 41 towns, of which the largest are Lahore (population, 202,964, including cantonment), Amristar(162,429), Sialkot (57,956), Gujranwala (29,224),

Batala Batala is the eighth largest city in the state of Punjab, India in terms of population after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Mohali and Hoshiarpur. Batala ranks as the second-oldest city after Bathinda. It is a municipal cor ...

(27,365), and Gujrat (22,022). In commercial importance Lahore and Amritsar dwarfed all other towns in the Division, but Sialkot and Batala were considerably more than local centres. Besides the administrative charge of six British Districts, the Commissioner of Lahore had political control over the Native State of Chamba, which had an area of and a population (1901) of 127,834.

Demographics

Population

According to the 2023 census, Lahore division had a population of 22,772,710 roughly equal to the nation of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

or the US state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

List of the Districts

List of the Tehsils

Independence

With the

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

in 1947, Lahore Division was divided among the two countries. with the eastern half becoming

Amritsar District Amritsar district is one of the twenty three districts that make up the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. Located in the Majha region of Punjab, the city of Amritsar is the headquarters of this district. As of 2011, it is the second most ...

Constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

References

{{coord, 31, 10, N, 74, 30, E, region:PK_type:adm2nd_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Divisions of Punjab, Pakistan Divisions of British India Lahore