CENSUS IN PAKISTAN

The Census in Pakistan is a decennial census and a descriptive count of Pakistan's

population on Census Day, and of their dwellings, conducted and supervised by the
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The 2017 Census in Pakistan marks the first census to take
place in Pakistan since 1998.

A national census is mandated by the Constitution of Pakistan to be held every ten

years. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the first census took place in 1951
under Finance Minister Sir Malik Ghulam, serving under Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.
Since 1951, there have been only 6 nationwide censuses (1961, 1972, 1981, 1998 and
2017). Delays and postponements have often been due to politicization. Pakistan's last
completed census took place in 2017. The next national census was scheduled to take
place in 2001 and later 2008, and again in 2010, but none of those plans could
materialize. There were multiple census counts completed for the latest round in April
2012, but were subsequently thrown out as being "unreliable". A UN led census was to
be conducted with staff training and GPS digitization. As of 2015, the population of
Pakistan is estimated at 191.71 million. As of 2016, the population of religious minorities
in Pakistan have increased to 3 million. On 25 August 2017, the official results declared
Pakistan's population to be 207.74 million.

CENSUS

1998

The total population of Pakistan as emerged in the provisional results of the 1998
census is 130.580 million as against 84.254 million in last census 1981 showing a
percentage increase of 54.98 or an average annual growth rate of 2.61 percent. There is
a welcome decline in the average annual growth rate observed during 1972-81 i.e. 3.06
percent.

GROWTH RATE

The growth rate of Pakistan is 2.61. The annual growth rate of Punjab, Sindh and
Balochistan is 2.55, 2.71 and 2.42 respectively.

POPULATION DENSITY

The population density (persons per sq. km.) was 164. The population density that is
persons per square kilometers of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab is 212.8, 18.8 and 353.5
respectively. Punjab is highly populous province and Islamabad is most thickly populated
area.

2017

According to the 2017 census official results, declared on 25 August 2017, the
population of Pakistan was 207,774,520. Religious data on this census is yet to be
revealed.