Estimates from the United Nations

In July 2022, the United Nations published its 2022 World Population Prospects, a bi annually-updated database where key demographic indicators are estimated and projected worldwide down to the country level. They prepared estimates of Pakistan's population for every year from 1950 to 2021, as well as projections for future decades.^[6] This data includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Projections are highlighted in light yellow, and future figures are taken from the medium fertility variant.

Structure of population

The table below shows Pakistan's population structure by five-year age group and sex using data from the 2017 census.^[2] The country's population structure is relatively young, with a median age of 19. With low death rates and a declining birth rate, the country is in the third stage of its Demographic transition. In 2017, Pakistan's sex ratio stood at 105 males per 100 females,^[3] which is much more balanced than South Asia as a whole.

The statistics below do not contain Azad Kashmir or Gilgit-Baltistan, which disseminate their census data separately from Pakistan's four provinces and Islamabad.

Population distribution

Pakistan's population is distributed unevenly, with over half of the country's people living in the Punjab province. On the other hand, Balochistan, which is geographically Pakistan's largest province, is its least-populated. The population is mainly clustered around the most agriculturally fertile areas, particularly the Indus River and its tributaries. Most of the country's people live in rural areas, but two large and growing megacities exist: the coastal Karachi and Lahore in eastern Punjab. Numerous smaller cities (such as Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and the capital Islamabad) dot the rest of the country.

By province

The table below shows Pakistan's provinces and territories by their historical population. While every one of Pakistan's administrative units currently has a growing population, the pace of growth is uneven throughout the country due to differing levels of fertility, mortality, as well as domestic and international migration. Populations pertaining to the modern borders of provinces are shown.

More information Province or Territory, Punjab ...

Province or Territory	1951[11]	1961[11]	1972[11]	1981[11]	1998[11]	2017[3]
Punjab	20,540,762	25,463,974	37,607,423	47,292,441	73,691,290	109,989,655
Sindh	6,047,748	8,367,065	14,155,909	19,028,666	30,439,893	47,854,510
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	5,888,550	7,578,186	10,879,781	13,259,875	20,919,976	35,501,964
Balochistan	1,167,167	1,353,484	2,428,678	4,332,376	6,565,885	12,335,129
ICT	—	117,669	237,549	340,286	805,235	2,003,368
Four Provinces and ICT	33,740,167	42,880,378	65,309,340	84,253,644	132,352,279	207,684,626
Azad Kashmir[4]	886,000	1,065,000	1,573,000	1,983,465	2,972,501	4,045,367
Gilgit-Baltistan[5]	—	—	—	—	884,000	1,492,924
Total Pakistan	—	—	—	—	136,208,780	213,222,917

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Urbanization

The following table shows how Pakistan has urbanised. As is true with population growth, urbanisation is an uneven and nonlinear process. With an urbanisation rate of 51.9% as of 2017, Sindh is the country's most urbanised province, and is even more urban than Islamabad Capital Territory. This is largely fuelled by the growth of Karachi, which economically dominates the province and attracts migrants from the rest of the country. On the other hand, the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan both share very low urbanisation rates of 16.5%.

More information Province or Territory, Punjab ...

Province or Territory	1951[11]	1961[11]	1972[11]	1981[11]	1998[11]	2017[3]
Punjab	17.3%	21.5%	24.4%	27.6%	31.3%	36.9%
Sindh	29.2%	37.9%	40.4%	43.3%	48.8%	51.9%
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	8.6%	10.3%	11.1%	12.6%	14.3%	16.5%
Balochistan	12.4%	16.9%	16.5%	15.6%	23.9%	27.6%
ICT	0.0%	0.0%	32.3%	60.1%	65.7%	50.4%
Four Provinces and ICT	17.7%	22.5%	25.4%	28.3%	32.5%	36.4%
Azad Kashmir[4]	—	—	—	8.1%	12.5%	17.4%
Gilgit-Baltistan[5]	—	—	—	—	16.8%	16.5%
ICT	0.0%	0.0%	32.3%	60.1%	65.7%	50.4%

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Largest cities

Main article: List of cities in Pakistan by population

As urbanisation has progressed and owing to the country's large population, Pakistan today has many very large urban centers which act as hubs for commerce and culture. The nation has two megacities, Karachi and Lahore. With populations of 14.9 million and 11.1 million respectively (in 2017), they are among the world's largest metropolises. The country also has seven more cities with more than 1 million residents each: Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Multan, Hyderabad, and Islamabad. All of them play a significant role in the country, housing nearly 14 million people altogether. Aside from these, there are 103 more cities in the country with populations of at least 100,000.

Below a list showing Pakistan's twenty largest cities as of the 2017 census can be found, which not only shows the current populations of the cities, but also their growth rates and locations. The full list can be found on the main article: List of cities in Pakistan by population.

All city population figures below include adjacent cantonments.

More information City Name, Province or Territory ...

City Name	Province or Territory	2017 Population[13]	1998 Population[11]	Avg. Annual Growth Rate
Karachi	Sindh	14,884,402	9,339,023	2.48%
Lahore	Punjab	11,119,985	5,209,088	4.06%
Faisalabad	Punjab	3,210,158	2,008,861	2.49%
Rawalpindi	Punjab	2,097,824	1,409,768	2.11%
Gujranwala	Punjab	2,028,421	1,132,509	3.11%
Peshawar	KPK	1,969,823	982,816	3.72%
Multan	Punjab	1,872,641	1,197,384	2.38%
Hyderabad	Sindh	1,733,622	1,166,894	2.10%
Islamabad	ICT	1,009,003	529,180	3.45%
Quetta	Balochistan	999,385	565,137	3.04%
Bahawalpur	Punjab	762,774	408,395	3.34%
Sargodha	Punjab	658,208	458,440	1.92%
Sialkot	Punjab	656,730	421,502	2.36%
Sukkur	Sindh	500,401	335,551	2.12%
Larkana	Sindh	488,006	270,283	3.15%
Sheikhupura	Punjab	472,269	280,263	2.79%
Rahim Yar Khan	Punjab	420,963	233,537	3.14%
Jhang	Punjab	414,309	293,366	1.83%
Dera Ghazi Khan	Punjab	397,362	190,542	3.94%
Gujrat	Punjab	390,758	251,792	2.34%

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Estimates based on surveys

Surveys taken by the Pakistani government or intergovernmental organisations are seen as the most reliable method of keeping tabs on birth, death, fertility, and infant mortality rates in a country without a reliable vital registration system. The data recorded in these surveys is used by the United Nations in order to estimate historical and future fertility and mortality figures for Pakistan in the World Population Prospects.^[15]

Regional fertility rates

Many of the surveys above also recorded fertility rate data broken down by each of Pakistan's administrative units, while many more surveys have been taken explicitly focusing on a specific province or territory. The fertility rate data recorded in these surveys is displayed in the table below.

More information Survey, Punjab ...

Survey	Punjab	Sindh	KPK	Balochistan	ICT	AJK	G-B	Pakistan
DHS 2006–07[16]	3.9	4.3	4.3	4.1	—	—	—	4.08
MICS Punjab 2011[25]	3.6	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
DHS 2012–13[19]	3.8	3.9	3.9	4.2	3.0	—	3.8	3.84
MICS Punjab 2014[26]	3.5	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
MICS Sindh 2014[27]	—	4.0	—	—	—	—	—	—
MICS KPK 2016–17[28]	—	—	4.0	—	—	—	—	—
MICS G-B 2016–17[29]	—	—	—	—	—	—	4.6	—
DHS 2017–18[21]	3.4	3.6	4.1	4.0	3.0	3.5	4.7	3.56
MICS Punjab 2017–18[30]	3.7	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
MICS Sindh 2018–19[31]	—	3.7	—	—	—	—	—	—
MICS KPK 2019[32]	—	—	4.0	—	—	—	—	—
MICS Balochistan 2019-20[33]	—	—	—	4.0	—	—	—	—
MICS AJK 2020–21[34]	—	—	—	—	—	3.4	—	—

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The MICS surveys above also provide data on the district level, although they come with a far higher margin of error. This margin of error is lessened for larger districts from where larger sample sizes were utilised. In the chart below, the latest fertility rate data for each Pakistani district with a population of over 2 million as of the 2017 census can be found. Although the table is originally ranked by district population size, clicking the headers will allow the reader to sort the table.

More information District, Province ...

District	Province	Total fertility rate	Margin of error	Year of survey	2017 Population
Lahore	Punjab	3.1	±0.2	2017–18[30]	11,119,985
Faisalabad	Punjab	3.3	±0.2	2017–18[30]	7,882,444
Rawalpindi	Punjab	3.2	±0.2	2017–18[30]	5,402,380
Gujranwala	Punjab	3.4	±0.2	2017–18[30]	5,011,066
Rahim Yar Khan	Punjab	4.6	±0.4	2017–18[30]	4,807,762
Multan	Punjab	3.6	±0.3	2017–18[30]	4,746,166
Peshawar	KPK	4.0	±0.5	2019[32]	4,331,959
Muzaffargarh	Punjab	4.7	±0.3	2017–18[30]	4,328,549
Karachi West	Sindh	2.2	±0.3	2018–19[31]	3,907,065
Sialkot	Punjab	3.5	±0.3	2017–18[30]	3,894,938
Sargodha	Punjab	3.6	±0.3	2017–18[30]	3,696,212
Bahawalpur	Punjab	3.9	±0.4	2017–18[30]	3,669,176
Sheikhupura	Punjab	3.7	±0.3	2017–18[30]	3,460,004
Qasur	Punjab	4.3	±0.3	2017–18[30]	3,454,881
Okara	Punjab	4.3	±0.4	2017–18[30]	3,040,826
Bahawalnagar	Punjab	3.7	±0.3	2017–18[30]	2,975,656
Karachi Central	Sindh	2.2	±0.3	2018–19[31]	2,971,382
Khanewal	Punjab	4.0	±0.4	2017–18[30]	2,920,233
Vehari	Punjab	3.8	±0.3	2017–18[30]	2,902,081
Karachi East	Sindh	3.2	±0.4	2018–19[31]	2,875,315
Dera Ghazi Khan	Punjab	5.4	±0.5	2017–18[30]	2,872,631
Gujrat	Punjab	3.1	±0.2	2017–18[30]	2,756,289
Jhang	Punjab	4.3	±0.4	2017–18[30]	2,742,633
Korangi	Sindh	2.5	±0.3	2018–19[31]	2,577,556
Sahiwal	Punjab	3.6	±0.4	2017–18[30]	2,513,011
Khairpur	Sindh	4.8	±0.8	2018–19[31]	2,405,190
Mardan	KPK	4.0	±0.3	2019[32]	2,373,399
Swat	KPK	4.5	±0.5	2019[32]	2,308,624
Quetta	Balochistan	4.7	±0.3	2019-20[33]	2,269,473
Hyderabad	Sindh	3.0	±0.4	2018–19[31]	2,199,928
Toba Tek Singh	Punjab	3.5	±0.3	2017–18[30]	2,191,495
Sanghar	Sindh	4.2	±0.4	2018–19[31]	2,049,873
Islamabad	ICT	3.0	±0.3	2017–18[21]	2,003,368

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Estimates from the United Nations

In July 2022, the United Nations published its 2022 World Population Prospects, a biennially-updated database where key demographic indicators are estimated and projected worldwide down to the country level. They prepared the following estimates of demographic indicators in Pakistan for every year from 1950 to 2021, as well as projections for future decades.^[6] This data includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Human Development Index

Pakistan's Human Development Index (HDI) value for 2018 is in the medium human development category with a score of 0.560 (152nd rank out of 189 countries and territories) compared to 0.614 (135th rank) for Bangladesh and 0.647 (129th rank) for India. From 1990 to 2018, Pakistan's HDI increased 38.6% from 0.404 to 0.560.^[35][36]

2018 Information on Pakistani provinces/regions, compared to other countries, estimated at three decimal places is provided below:^[37]

More information Rank, Region ...

Rank	Region	HDI (2018)[37]
Medium human development
1	Islamabad Capital Territory	0.875
2	Azad Jammu & Kashmir	0.611
3	Gilgit-Baltistan	0.593
4	Punjab	0.567
–	Pakistan (average)	0.561
Low human development
5	Sindh	0.533
6	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	0.529
7	Balochistan	0.477
8	FATA	0.466

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Literacy

definition: aged 10 and over with the "Ability to read and understand simple text in any language from a newspaper or magazine, write a simple letter and perform basic mathematical calculation (ie, counting and addition/subtraction)." as of 2018^[38]

• Total population: 62.3%
• Male: 72.5%
• Female: 51.8%

Educational institutions by kind

• Primary schools: 156,592
• Middle schools: 320,611
• High schools: 23,964
• College of Arts and Sciences: 3,213
• Degree colleges: 1,202
• Technical and vocational institutions: 3,125
• Universities: 197^[39]

^[40]

Ethnic groups

The major ethnolinguistic groups of Pakistan include Punjabis, Pashtuns,^[42][43]Sindhis, Saraikis, Muhajirs, Balochs, Paharis^{[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]} and Brahuis,^{[44][lower-alpha 3]} with significant numbers of Kashmiris, Chitralis, Shina, Baltis, Kohistanis, Torwalis, Hazaras, Burusho, Wakhis, Kalash, Siddis and other various minorities.^[45][46]

Pakistan's census does not include the 1.4 million citizens of Afghanistan who are temporarily residing in Pakistan.^[47][48][49] Majority of them were born in Pakistan within the last four decades and are ethnically Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and others.^[50]

Foreign-born population in Pakistan

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, many Muslims from India migrated to Pakistan and they are the largest group of foreign-born residents. This group is dwindling because of its age. The second-largest group of foreign-born residents consists of refugees from Afghanistan who are expected to leave Pakistan by the end of 2018.^[51] There are also smaller groups of Muslim immigrants from countries such as Burma, Bangladesh, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, among others.^{[citation needed]}

Languages

• Saraiki and Hindko was included with Punjabi in the 1951 and 1961 censuses.

Pakistan is a multilingual country with dozens of languages spoken as first languages.^[54][55] The majority Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.^[56][57]

Urdu is the national language and the lingua franca of Pakistan, and while sharing official status with English, it is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups.^[54][55] Numerous regional languages are spoken as first languages by Pakistan's various ethnolinguistic groups. Languages with more than a million speakers each include Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Urdu, Balochi, Hindko, Pahari-Pothwari^{[lower-alpha 2]} and Brahui.^[9]

Ethnologue lists 74 languages in Pakistan. Of these, 66 are indigenous and 8 are non-indigenous. In terms of their vitality, 7 are classified as 'institutional', 17 are 'developing', 37 are 'vigorous', 10 are 'in trouble', and 3 are 'dying'.^[58]

Urdu (national language)

Urdu (اردو) is the national language (قومی زبان) and lingua franca of Pakistan.^[59] Although only about 7% of Pakistanis speak it as their first language, it is widely spoken and understood as a second language by the vast majority of Pakistanis.^[60][61]

No region in Pakistan uses Urdu as its mother tongue, though it is spoken as the first language of Muslim migrants (known as Muhajirs) in Pakistan who left India after independence in 1947.^[62] Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new state of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest British India.^[63] It is written, spoken and used in all provinces/territories of Pakistan, and together with English as the main languages of instruction,^[64] although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages.^[65]

Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject up to higher secondary school in both English and Urdu medium school systems, which has produced millions of second-language Urdu speakers among people whose native language is one of the other languages of Pakistan – which in turn has led to the absorption of vocabulary from various regional Pakistani languages,^[66] while some Urdu vocabularies has also been assimilated by Pakistan's regional languages.^[67][68]

Punjabi

Punjabi (پنجابی) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. It is spoken as a first language by almost 39% of Pakistanis.^[69] It is the 11th most widely spoken language in India, and the third most-spoken native language in the Indian Subcontinent. The language is spoken among a significant overseas diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and the broader Indo-European language family in its usage of lexical tone.^[70]

Pashto

Pashto (پښتو) is an Iranian language spoken as a first language by more than 18% of Pakistanis, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in northern Balochistan as well as in ethnic Pashtun communities in the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and most notably Karachi,^{[71][72][73][74]} which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in the world.^[75]

There are three major dialect patterns within which the various individual dialects may be classified; these are Pakhto, which is the Northern (Peshawar) variety, and the softer Pashto spoken in the southern areas such as in Quetta.

Sindhi

Sindhi (سنڌي) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken as a first language by almost 15% of Pakistanis, mostly in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The name "Sindhi" is derived from Sindhu, the original name of the Indus River.^[76]

Like other languages of this family, Sindhi has passed through Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) and Middle Indo-Aryan (Pali, secondary Prakrits, and Apabhramsha) stages of growth. 20th century Western scholars such as George Abraham Grierson believed that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vrācaḍa dialect of Apabhramsha (described by Markandeya as being spoken in Sindhu-deśa) but later work has shown this to be unlikely.^[77] It entered the New Indo-Aryan stage around the 10th century CE.^[78][79]

Saraiki

Saraiki (سرائیکی) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Lahnda group, spoken in central and southeastern Pakistan, primarily in the southern part of the province of Punjab. Saraiki is to a high degree mutually intelligible with Standard Punjabi^[80][81] and shares with it a large portion of its vocabulary and morphology. At the same time in its phonology it is radically different^[82] (particularly in the lack of tones, the preservation of the voiced aspirates and the development of implosive consonants), and has important grammatical features in common with the Sindhi language spoken to the south.^[80]

Saraiki is the language of about 26 million people in Pakistan, ranging across southern Punjab, southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and border regions of northern Sindh and eastern Balochistan.^[83]

Balochi

Balochi (بلوچی) is an Iranian language spoken as a first language by about 3% of Pakistanis, mostly in the Balochistan province. Rakshani is the major dialect group in terms of numbers. Sarhaddi is a sub-dialect of Rakshani. Other sub-dialects are Kalati (Qalati), Chagai-Kharani and Panjguri. Eastern Hill Balochi or Northern Balochi is very different from the rest.

Hindko

Hindko (ہندکو) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken in several discontinuous areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Hindko is mutually intelligible with Punjabi and Saraiki,^[84] and has more affinities with the latter than with the former.^[85] Differences with other Punjabi varieties are more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax.^[86] The word Hindko, commonly used to refer to a number of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in the neighbourhood of Pashto, likely originally meant "the Indian language" (in contrast to Pashto).^[87] An alternative local name for this language group is Hindki.^{[88][lower-alpha 4]}

Brahui

Brahui (براھوی) is a Dravidian language which is spoken in the central part of Balochistan province. Brahui is spoken in the central part of Pakistani Balochistan, mainly in Kalat, Khuzdar and Mastung districts, but also in smaller numbers in neighbouring districts, as well as in Afghanistan which borders Pakistani Balochistan; however, many members of the ethnic group no longer speak Brahui.^[89]

Minor languages

Other languages spoken by linguistic minorities include the languages listed below, with speakers ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands. A few are highly endangered languages that may soon have no speakers at all.^[90] The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization defines five levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct":^[91]

• Vulnerable - "most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home)"
• Definitely endangered – "children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home"
• Severely endangered – "language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves"
• Critically endangered – "the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently"
• Extinct – "there are no speakers left; included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s"

The list below includes the findings from the third edition of Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010; formerly the Red Book of Endangered Languages), as well as the online edition of the aforementioned publication, both published by UNESCO.^[92]

Recent changes and detailed demographic data

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released religious data of Pakistan Census 2017 on 19 May 2021.^[98] 96.47% are Muslims, followed by 2.14% Hindus, 1.27% Christians, 0.09% Ahmadis and 0.02% others.

The 2017 census showed marginal increase in the share of Hindus.The census also recorded Pakistan's first Hindu-majority district, called Umerkot District.

On the other hand, Christianity in Pakistan, while increasing in raw numbers, has fallen significantly in percentage terms since the last census. Christians are concentrated in the most developed parts of Pakistan, Lahore District (over 5% Christian), Islamabad Capital Territory (over 4% Christian), and Northern Punjab.

The Ahmadiyya movement shrunk in size (both raw numbers and percentage) between 1998 and 2017, while remaining concentrated in Lalian Tehsil, Chiniot District, where approximately 13% of the population is Ahmadiyya.