The total population of the district according to the 2017 Census its population stands at 650,370. The major language of the district is generally considered to be a variety of Pahari. Though occasionally referred to in the literature as Chibhali or Poonchi, it is locally known as Hindko. Its speakers tend to identify more with the Hindko spoken to the west, even though perceiving their speech to be only slightly different from the varieties of Bagh District and of the core Pahari areas further south in Murree. The local dialect has a higher percentage of shared basic vocabulary with the central group of Pahari dialects, than with the Hindko of nearby Mansehra and Abbottabad. Another language spoken in the district is Gujari. The local dialect is closely related to the Gujari varieties spoken in Hazara and the rest of Azad Kashmir. Kashmiri is spoken in the city of Muzaffarabad. It is distinct from, although still intelligible with, the Kashmiri of the Neelam Valley to the north. Other languages spoken include Urdu, Shina and Balti.
Administrative divisions
The district of Muzaffarabad is administratively subdivided into three tehsils, which are sub-divided into 51 Union Councils
According to Pakistan District Education Ranking 2017, a report released by Alif Ailaan, Muzaffarabad is ranked at number 6 nationally with an education score of 73.85. However when it comes to infrastructure, Muzaffarabad ranks at 105, with school infrastructure score of 34.29. There is a serious lack of electricity, drinking water and boundary wall with scores of 11.7, 27.93 and 40.09 respectively. Infrastructure wise, the schools are not conducive to study as they lack some of the basic facilities which should be present in a school. 72% of the schools are primary and only 28% are above primary. Therefore, students graduating out of primary schools do not have sufficient post primary schools to attend. This leads to a steady decrease in enrollment over the classes, especially for girls. The issues on TaleemDo app for the area also relates to the complaint of unsatisfactory infrastructure and a lack of furniture in the buildings used for schooling.
