Peshawar District (, , ) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is located about 160 km west of the Pakistan's capital Islamabad. The district headquarter is Peshawar, which is also the capital of Khyber Paktunkhwa. History Peshawar is located in geo-strategically important location and has an enriched history. This district and city has seen the rise and fall of many civilizations. It was once the center of Gandhara and has subsequently been ruled by Persians, Greeks, Buddhists, Kushans, Afghans, Mughals, Marathas, Sikhs and the British. The original district of Peshawar was a district of the North-West Frontier Province of British India. After independence in 1947, the old Peshawar District became Peshawar Division containing the current districts of Peshawar District, Charsadda District and Nowshera District. In July 1988, the former Charsadda tehsil was separated and became Charsadda District while former Nowshera tehsil became Nowshera District in 1990. Under the latest revision of Pakistan's administrative structure, promulgated in 2001, Peshawar was also given the status of a city district. Demographics Population At the time of the 2017 census the district had a population of 4,331,959, of which 2,229,681 were males and 2,101,649 females. The population of the district over the years is shown in the table below. Rural population was 2,362,136 (54.53%) while the urban population was 1,969,823 (45.47%). The literacy rate was 55.01% - the male literacy rate was 68.78% while the female literacy rate was 40.47%. Language Religion 1897 Report According to 1897 records during British Raj, most people living in Peshawar valley were Pathans and belonged to an agriculture community but there was also large Punjabi and Hindkowan communities living in the valley; all three ethnolinguistic groups religiously belonged to Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. Most people in Peshawar city spoke and understood Urdu. Elite belonging to small towns such as big feudal Khan families, traders and almost all of Hindus also spoke Urdu. Persian was also spoken by elites of Peshawar city and by traders from Kabul. Majority of the population of the district especially the agriculturists and Pathans only spoke Pashto. 92% of the total population of Peshawar valley practiced religion of Islam and remainder 8% practiced Hinduism, Sikhism and other religions. People belonging to these minority religions primarily lived in major cities such as Peshawar, Charsadda (now in Charsadda District) and Hoti (now in Mardan District) and mostly in cantonment