Pakistan’s population soars to 207m with 2.4% growth

• Govt shares provisional summary results from recently-concluded sixth Housing and Population Census

Pakistan’s current total population has soared to 207.744520 million with an average annual growth rate of 2.4 percent from calendar year 1998, as recorded in recently-concluded sixth Housing and Population Census.

According to provisional summary results of the census which were presented in the Council of Common Interests on Friday, this population number included 132,189,531 rural and 75,584,989 urban population, showing an overall population growth at 57 percent during the period 1998-2017.

The figures recorded in the census also showed 2.23 percent growth in rural areas and 2.7 percent in urban areas during these years as the male population at present stands at 106,449,322 with the female population at 101,314,780, and the population of transgender at 10,418.

As per the provincial break-up, Punjab has population of 110,012,442 individuals with annual growth of 2.13 percent from the period 1998-2017. The rural population of Punjab stands at 69,625,144 and urban 40,387,298, showing annual average growth of 1.81 percent and 2.74 percent.

The total population of Sindh province stands at 47,886,051, a growth of 2.41 percent, with 22,975,593 rural population and 24,910,485 urban population, indicating a growth rate of 2.36 percent and 2.46 percent respectively. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has population of 30,523,371, showing average growth rate of 2.89 percent over a period from 1998-2017.

This includes 24,793,737 as rural population and 5,729,634 urban, showing 2.87 percent and 2.96 percent annual growth respectively. The total population of FATA stands at 5,001,676, showing 2.41 annual growth rate. This includes 4,859,778 rural and 141,898 urban population, indicating an average growth of 2.41 percent and 2.70 percent respectively.

The current population of Balochistan is 12,344,408 million, showing growth of 3.37 percent. This includes 8,943,055 rural and 1,768,830 urban population showing an annual growth rate of 3.33 percent and 3.49 percent since 1998. The total population of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has been calculated at 2,006,572 million with a growth of 4.91 percent.

The ICT included 991,747 rural and 1,014,825 urban population which witnessed annual growth of 6.95 percent and 3.48 percent respectively. It is mentioned that total population includes all persons residing in the country including Afghans and other aliens residing with the local population. However, the population does not include Afghan refugees living in refugee village and diplomats.

The provisional results show an overall increase in population by 57% over the year 1998, while the population increased by 146.6 % since Census-1981. There is a decline in the population growth rate at national level and in Punjab and Sindh provinces, while an increase has been observed in the Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and FATA.

As per the provisional results, the urban population shows a growing trend with 36.38 % of the population living in urban areas. The comparative position of provinces and areas shows similar trend in urban population with a slightly higher increase in the Punjab.

On the other hand, a significant decrease has been observed in the percentage of urban population in ICT which gone down from 65.72% to 50.58%, indicating that growth occurred in the rural areas of Islamabad. Amongst the provinces, Sindh is the most urbanised province, where 52.02% population lives in urban areas.

According to the census, the total households in the country were recorded at 32,205,111 showing growth of 2.4 percent over a period from 1998-2017. The households include 20,012,797 rural and 12,192,314 urban units demonstrating annual growth of 2.23 percent and 2.7 percent in households.

According to the data, Pakhtunkhwa has 3,845,168 households, FATA 55,379 units, Punjab 17,103,85 units, Sindh 8,585,610 units, Balochistan 1,775,939 units and ICT 336,182 households.

AJK: It is mentioned that census results of Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan have not been included in the census results, announcement of which would be made later. Federal Minister for Statistics Kamran Michael said that the credit of holding the sixth census went to the incumbent government.

He said that new data would be utilised for making positive and result oriented policies and strategies. He lauded the efforts of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for making untiring efforts to make this activity successful.