By: ChandrashekarBhat
PAKISTAN has continued its declining trend in annual population growth, according to the latest census results made public on Wednesday (19) after a three-year delay.
Data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed the country’s population rose to 207.68 million in 2017 when the latest census was conducted, from 132.35 million recorded in 1998, a rise of 75.33 million in 19 years.
However, the annual growth rate of the population during the period stood at 2.4 per cent, compared to 2.69 per cent registered in the 1998 census and 3.06 recorded in 1981 enumeration, showing a steady decline over 36 years. Pakistan’s population was 84.25 million in 1981.
According to the 2017 data, there are 106.018 million males, 101.344 million females and 321,744 transgender persons in the country. Muslims account for 96.47 per cent of the population, followed by Christians (1.27per cent), Hindus (1.73 per cent) and Ahmadis 0.09 per cent.
The literacy rate remains low at 58.92 per cent, but it is a significant improvement from 43.92 per cent in 1998. Some 87.48 million Pakistanis are literate.
With a population of 109.99 million, Punjab province is home to more than half the people of the country and not surprisingly, Punjabi is the mother tongue of the largest proportion of the population (38.78 per cent).
Sindh’s capital Karachi is the most populous city in the country with a population of 10.6 million.
