Before the gazette called it a district it was a village with too many names. Rai Bhoi di Talwandi. Then Nankana, because a boy born in 1469 to Mehta Kalu and Mata Tripta grew into Guru Nanak, and the place took his name the way a family takes a child. The present district, cut from Sheikhupura in 2005, sits west of Lahore and east of Faisalabad on canal squares.
The 2023 census counted 1,634,871 people in 246,956 households on about 2,216 km². Urban 323,388. Rural 1,311,483. Literacy 63.12 percent — 68.38 among men, 57.63 among women. Punjabi is the first language of almost the whole sheet.
Nankana Sahib tehsil — 1,662 km², 1,065,063 people, literacy 59.02 percent. Headquarters, gurdwaras, Warburton, Mangtanwala, Syedwala, Mandi Faizabad.
Sangla Hill — 223 km², 269,993 people, literacy 72.08 percent.
Shahkot — 331 km², 299,815 people, literacy 69.28 percent. Toward the Faisalabad side.
Rice mills, textile rooms, brick kilns, a sugar mill. Wheat and rice write the year.
Guru Nanak was born here in 1469. Janamsakhi traditions often place the day in Baisakh; later observance settled on the Kartik full moon. Baba Dharam Chand is credited with an early shrine. Maharaja Ranjit Singh raised the present Gurdwara Janam Asthan and endowed the langar. Around it: Patti Sahib, Bal Lila, Kiara Sahib, Mal Ji Sahib, Tambu Sahib. Rai Bular Bhatti is the local chief of the birth stories; the Rai line still contests seats.
Akali reformers came to take the shrine from Udasi mahant Narayan Das. His men opened fire. Counts differ — official figures in the eighties, later Sikh counts commonly 140 to 260. Taught as Saka Nankana Sahib. Keys passed to the Shiromani committee. The town still marks the date.
1947 emptied the Sikh mohallas. The gurdwaras stayed under later Evacuee Trust and board care. Organised jathas from India return on protocol days. Kartarpur took some newer traffic after 2019. Nankana remains the birth address. A local Muslim town lives around that address without becoming it.
Sir Ganga Ram is claimed by Mangtanwala, now in this district; his working life was Lahore. Babra Sharif took the film name from this soil. Mohammad Irfan is the tall fast bowler. Ijaz Shah and Barjees Tahir are federal names. Shizra Mansab Ali Khan and the Rai Mansab house sit on provincial rolls.
Degree colleges, DHQ at headquarters, THQs at Shahkot and Sangla Hill. Serious medicine still means Lahore or Faisalabad. About 91 km to Lahore, about 75 toward Faisalabad.
Figures from the 2023 census. Shrine and 1921 notes from published gurdwara histories. Names from public records.