ISLAMABAD - The Council of Common Interests (CCI) has unanimously approved the 7th Population and Housing Census, recording the total population of the country at 241.49 million with a growth rate of 2.55 percent.
The sole agenda of CCI meeting, held here with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair, was to discuss and approve the 7th population census.
Chief Ministers of all provinces, representatives of all political parties including Dr. Khalid Magsi of Balochistan Awami Party, Syed Aminul Haq of MQM, Maulana Asad Mehmood of Jamiat Ulema Islam (F) and Qamar Zaman Kaira of Pakistan People’s Party attended the meeting and fully endorsed the results of the census. The provincial governments and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics played an important role in this very vital national responsibility, the PM added.
“The limited resources of the country are insufficient for the rising population. If the population increased by the same rate, then despite our best efforts, poverty and unemployment will increase in Pakistan.” The officials of Ministry of Planning and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics gave detailed briefing about the results of the census and the methodology used in it. According to the detailed province-wise break-down of the population, Punjab’s population is 127.68 million with a growth rate of 2.53 percent, Sindh has 55.69 million with a growth rate of 2.57 percent, Balochistan 14.89 million with a growth rate of 3.2 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 40.85 million with a growth rate of 2.38 percent and Islamabad federal capital territory has 2.36 million with a growth rate of 2.81 percent. Rural population of Pakistan is 61.18 percent while urban is 38.82 percent. This was the first ever digital census of the country in which Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to ensure real time monitoring, transparency, data quality and complete coverage. Taking advantage of the digital mode of data entry, 6.6 million households of the country entered their data through ‘Self- Enumeration’ portal and expressed confidence in the digital system. The digital census continued from March 1, 2023 to May 22, 2023 while the survey after data collection was held from July 8 to 19.
