Pakistan’s population surges to a whopping 184 million

KARACHI
With an annual growth rate of more than two percent, the population of Pakistan has jumped to 184 million in 2010 from 119 million in 1990.
Presently, Pakistan contributes more than two and half percent of world’s population and its population growth rate has mostly remained above the world’s population growth rate.
Even while Pakistan’s population growth rate has started declining since the decade of 90’s, its contribution towards world’s population increased from 2.25 percent in 1990 to 2.69 percent in 2010.
Moreover, Pakistan has got the highest average fertility rate for 2005-2010 along with the highest household (HH) size (6.8) and the second highest density after India amongst the six most populous countries. This is despite the fact that various governments have been trying to tackle the issue of high population growth rate.
State Bank of Pakistan has pointed out the population-related issues in the Social Sector Developments segment of its annual report 2010. Demographic Transition: Pakistan like many other developing countries is passing through a demographic transition and is currently in the third stage of demographic transition of moderate growth where birth rate and death rate both decline and the pace of increase in population gets slow.
Crude Birth Rate (CBR) in the country has declined from 37 per 1000 person in 1961 to just above 28 per 1000 person in 2009 and Crude Death Rate (CDR) has shown a drop from 12 per 1000 person in 1961 to 7.6 per 1000 person in 2009. Consequently the natural increase in population has depicted a declining trend.
This reduction in CBR and CDR was also complemented by a declining trend in infant mortality rate (IMR) and overall fertility rate. IMR has dropped from 107.7 in 1990 (base year for MDG targets) to 73.5 in 2008 while total fertility has dropped from 5.3 in 1992 to 3.6 in 2010.
Like any other country, Pakistan has observed a significant change in its population composition while moving through different stages of demographic transition.
According to UN population projections there is a gradual rise in the percentage share of working age population while a fall in the percentage share of young and old age population (65+) towards the end of 90’s.