Pakistan’s residents have crossed 230 million, with an addition of over 25 million over the last five years, initial outcomes of an ongoing census show. The South Asian country’s general population has reached 233.4 million with an addition of more than 25 million individuals, Naeem uz Zafar, chief at the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, told Anadolu.
Zafar said the initial figures are founded on 98% of findings of the ongoing census, which is planned to culminate on April 20. The country’s population was registered as 207.68 million after the 2017 census.
The population has grown with an annual growth rate between 1.5% and 2%, likely to stay marginally low, and resembled slightly over 2% registered in 2017.
“These numbers may change because the work (census) is still in progress in several sacks across the country, especially in major cities,”.
Some pockets in the commercial capital Karachi, Lahore, Multan and other cities need to be sufficiently tabulated due to the failure of the census staff and non-cooperation of families.
Asked if the total residents are likely to hit the 250 million figure, Zafar said: “I cannot say anything in this regard at this stage. Something decisive could be said only after these deletions (number of people still not counted in big cities) are covered.”
Some 4.2 million and 1.65 million individuals have been counted in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the northern Giglit-Baltistan region, respectively. The federal capital Islamabad, meanwhile, has residents of 2.1 million. Over 60% of the country’s population resides in rural areas.
