The town of Arifwala is the headquarters of Arifwala tehsil, an administrative subdivision of the Pakpattan district. The tehsil is subdivided into 34 Wards.
In the nineteenth century, Arifwala was only a village named as chak No. 61/EB. Later, it was called Arifwala because of a landlord named "Arif" having agriculture land in this village. Arifwala Town was founded in 1927; the inauguration of the town was performed by Mrs F B Wace, whose husband was then Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Punjab. In 1995 it was attached to Pakpattan district. The Town Hall, which still exists in its original form, was inaugurated by the Governor of Punjab in 1933.
The climate of the city is hot and dry. The summer season starts from April and continues till October. May, June, July and August are the hottest months. The mean maximum and minimum temperature of these months are about 45 and 32 degrees Celsius respectively.
About 75% of the population live in villages and only 25% live in the municipal urban area. Most of the population are farmers. The total population of Arifwala is about 720,000.