Kolai-Palas Kohistan District
Kolai-Palas Kohistan District is a district in the Hazara Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It was a sub-division of the Kohistan district within the Hazara division till it attained the status of a separate district in 2017.
Overview and history
Kolai-Pallas was carved as a district out of [Lower Kohistan District, Pakistan|Kohistan District|Lower Kohistan] District by upgrading the old Pallas sub-division in 2017. On 31 May 2018, Battera Kolai was carved out of Pallas tehsil making two tehsils in total for Kolai-Pallas.Demographics
Population
The population estimate for the district in 2021 was 275,461 and as of the 2023 census, Kolai-Palas district has 33,983 households and a population of 280,162. The district has a sex ratio of 103.65 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 18.80%: 24.24% for males and 13.14% for females. 102,642 are under 10 years of age. The entire population lives in rural areas, from 1981 to 2023 the population increased by approximately 227%, this is an average increase of 1.95% per annum.Religion
787 people in the district are from religious minorities, mainly Christians.Language
As of the 2023 census, 85.19% of the population identified their language as Kohistani, 7.75% Shina and 2.81% Pashto as their first language. 4.03% of the population speaks languages classified as 'Others'. However the designation Kohistani is applied equally to different unrelated languages in the region, including the Kohistani Shina, mainly spoken in the eastern side of the Indus River which include Kolai-Palas, and Indus Kohistani, mainly spoken in the western side of the Indus River. Speakers of Kohistani Shina commonly selected Kohistani as a single census option.Administrative Units
The district currently has two Tehsils:| Tehsil | Name | Area | Pop. | Density | Literacy rate |
| Bataira / Kolai | 170 | 142,660 | 839.18 | 15.93% | |
| Palas | 1,240 | 137,502 | 110.89 | 23.08% |
The district is divided into 13 Wards, and 52 village councils.