Sargodha District (Punjabi and Urdu: ضلع سرگودھا), is a district of Punjab, Pakistan. The capital of the district is Sargodha. It is an agricultural district, wheat, rice, and sugarcane along with Kinno being its main crops. The Sargodha district and region is also famous for citrus fruit including Kinnow, orange and lemon. The district has an area of 5,864 km2.[2]
Etymology
It is believed that there was an old pond in the middle of the town where an old Hindu monk or sadhu (godha) used to live. The Sanskrit word for pond is "ser".[3] Since the town had a modest population, people would refer the place as 'ser godha', the place where that famous Sadhu resided next to the pond.[4] The Shahpur district was renamed when its headquarters were shifted to Sargodha in 1960.
Administration and tehsils
Sargodha city is the administrative headquarter of Sargodha Division and handles the population of about 8.1 million.[5] Sargodha District is administratively divided into Seven Tehsils, which contain a total of 161 Union Councils.[6] Following are the seven tehsils of Sargodha district:
At the time of the 2017 census, Sargodha district had 592,044 households and a population of 3,696,212. Sargodha had a sex ratio of 979 females per 1000 males and a literacy rate of 65.54% - 74.12% for males and 56.88% for females. 1,144,535 (30.97%) lived in urban areas. 928,166 (25.11%) were under 10 years of age.[8] In 2023, the district had 684,799 households and a population of 4,334,448.[1]
Sargodha District is among the world's best Citrus-producing region. Sargodha District is well known for its kinnow, a citrus variety.[9]
The below list shows the population of each of the seven tehsils of Sargodha district according to the 2017 Census of Pakistan along with area:
As per the 2017 census Muslims were the predominant religious community with 98.08% of the population while Christians were 1.76% of the population.[8]
^Portrait of Pakistan. Ferozsons. 1994. ISBN9789690101051. Retrieved 31 December 2007. The district derives its name for the headquarters town of Sargodha, which is a combination of "Sar" and "Godha". "Sar" is a Hindi word which denotes a water...
^Pakistan tourism directory. Holiday Weekly. 1997. Retrieved 31 December 2007. Sargodha is a colony town established in 1903, but its origins are older. Sargodha is a combination of the words "Sar" meaning a pond and "Godha"...
^1941 figures are for Shahpur, Bhalwal and Sargodha tehsils of the former Shahpur District, which roughly corresponds to present-day Sargodha district
^Historic district borders may not be an exact match in the present-day due to various bifurcations to district borders — which since created new districts — throughout the historic Punjab Province region during the post-independence era that have taken into account population increases.
Pakistan
Punjab
