According to the results of the recent digital census, approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) during its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday, the population of Pakistan has reached 241.49 million. The data also reveals a growth rate of 2.55 percent. All the chief ministers from the provinces attended the CCI meeting where the census results were officially sanctioned.
Punjab has the highest population with 127.68 million people, followed by Sindh with 55.69 million residents.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has a population of 40.85 million, and Balochistan’s population stands at 14.89 million. Meanwhile, the population of Islamabad, the capital city, is reported to be 2.36 million.
The total population of Pakistan, according to PBS data, has increased over the years. It was recorded at 132.35 million during the 1998 census, and by 2017, it had reached 207.68 million. The growth rate, which was 2.69 in 1998, declined to 2.40 in 2017, but with the latest census, it has risen again to 2.55.
In terms of rural and urban populations, the data indicates that 61.18 percent of Pakistan’s population resides in rural areas, while the remaining 38.82 percent are urban dwellers.
Breaking down the rural-urban distribution for individual provinces, in KP, a significant 84.99 percent of the population lives in rural areas. In Balochistan, 69.04 percent of the population is based in rural regions. Punjab has 59.30 percent of its people residing in rural areas, while the ratio in Sindh is 46.27 percent. In Islamabad, 53.10 percent of the population is settled in rural areas.
