Champawat district came into existence on 15.9.1997 by carving out from Pithoragarh and Nainital Districts in view of the adverse geographical situation, scattered population and rugged topographical situation. Till the Census 2001, it had only one tahsil Champawat. However, with the creation of three new tehsils from Champawat thus total number of tahsils has gone up four namely Champawat, Pati, Lohaghat and Poornagiri, in 2011 Census which are further divided into four C.D. blocks for development purposes. There are 705 villages in the district, out of which 632 are populated, 55 are uninhabited and 18 are forest villages. There are 313 gram panchayats in the district. During the decade 2001-2011, new tahsil Pati with 146 villages was created vide G.O. number 08 Chief Minister/Revenue/17 January 2004 Dehradun and Lohaghat (287 Villages) created vide G.O. number 126/revenue/13 February 2004 Dehradun. Another Poornagiri tahsil was also carved out vide G.O. number 1564 (i)/Revenue/30 October 2003 Dehradun by transferring 81 villages from tahsil Champawat. There are 4 towns in the district out of which three are statutory towns while one is census town. They are Tanakpur (NPP), Champawat (N.P.), Lohaghat (N.P.) and Banbasa (C.T.).
After the construction of Barakot tehsil, Champawat district has been divided into five tehsils, two sub-tehsils and four development blocks. To meet the health needs of the general public, the district has 19 Allopathic Hospitals, 25 Ayurvedic Hospitals, 5 Homeopathic Hospitals, 3 Primary Health Centers and 2 Community Health Centers. To provide easy and affordable access to education, there are 637 Junior Basic Schools, 157 Senior Basic Schools, 137 Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools, 3 Colleges and 3 PG Colleges.
Champawat district is bordered with the neighboring country Nepal in east separated by Mahakali river, Pithoragarh lies on its North, Almora and Nainital in the west and Udham Singh Nagar in south.