Demographics of Pakistan
had a population of 241,499,431 according to the final results of the 2023 census. This figure includes the country's four provinces e.g. Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan's census data is yet to be approved by CCI Council of Pakistan. Pakistan is the world's fifth–most populous country.
Between 1951 and 2023, Pakistan's population expanded over sevenfold, going from 33.7 million to 241.5 million. The country has a relatively high, although declining, growth rate supported by high birth rates and low death rates. Between 1998 and 2017, the average annual population growth rate stood at +2.40%.
Dramatic social changes have led to urbanization and the emergence of two megacities: Karachi and Lahore. The country's urban population more than tripled between 1981 and 2017, as Pakistan's urbanisation rate rose from 28.2% to 36.4%. Even with this, the nation's urbanisation rate remains one of the lowest in the world, and in 2017, over 130 million Pakistanis lived in rural areas.
Due to a high fertility rate, which was estimated at 3.5 in 2022, Pakistan has one of the world's youngest populations. The 2017 census recorded that 40.3% of the country's population was under the age of 15, while only 3.7% of Pakistanis were aged 65 or more. The median age of the country was 19, while its sex ratio was recorded to be 105 males per 100 females. Pakistan ranked last on the Global Gender Gap Index, with a gender parity score of 56.7%, reflecting one of the lowest levels of gender equality globally.
The demographic history of Pakistan from the ancient Indus Valley civilization to the modern era includes the arrival and settlement of many cultures and ethnic groups in the modern region of Pakistan from Eurasia and the nearby Middle East. Because of this, Pakistan has a multicultural, multilinguistic, and multiethnic society. Pakistan is also thought to have the world's fourth-largest refugee population, estimated at 1.4 million in mid-2021 by the UNHCR.
Population
The 2017 census recorded a population of 207,684,626 living in Pakistan's four provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory. The census also reported that Azad Kashmir's population stood at 4,045,367 and Gilgit-Baltistan's population was 1,492,924. This meant that the total population of Pakistan in 2017 was 213,222,917.The statistics in the graphs below were created by the United Nations in July 2022, and are covered in more detail in the following section. This data includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. For years, the country with a population exceeding 230 million has been grappling to achieve economic stability. The people of Pakistan are living in a precarious situation, with an uncertain future in the country.
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. This data includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.Projections are highlighted in light yellow, and future figures are taken from the medium fertility variant.
| Year | % Population aged 0 to 14 | % Population aged 15 to 64 | % Population aged 65 or more | |
| 1950 | 37,696,264 | 40.5% | 54.0% | 5.5% |
| 1955 | 40.3% | 55.3% | 4.4% | |
| 1960 | 45,954,226 | 40.6% | 55.6% | 3.7% |
| 1965 | 51,841,626 | 42.3% | 54.4% | 3.4% |
| 1970 | 59,290,872 | 43.7% | 53.0% | 3.3% |
| 1975 | 68,126,999 | 43.9% | 52.8% | 3.4% |
| 1980 | 80,624,057 | 43.0% | 53.5% | 3.4% |
| 1985 | 97,121,552 | 43.0% | 53.5% | 3.5% |
| 1990 | 115,414,069 | 43.7% | 52.8% | 3.5% |
| 1995 | 133,117,476 | 44.4% | 52.1% | 3.5% |
| 2000 | 154,369,924 | 42.9% | 53.6% | 3.5% |
| 2005 | 174,372,098 | 41.1% | 55.4% | 3.5% |
| 2010 | 194,454,498 | 39.2% | 57.0% | 3.7% |
| 2015 | 210,969,298 | 38.4% | 57.7% | 3.9% |
| 2020 | 227,196,741 | 37.3% | 58.6% | 4.2% |
| 2025 | 249,948,885 | 35.3% | 60.2% | 4.5% |
| 2030 | 274,029,836 | 33.2% | 61.9% | 4.9% |
| 2035 | 298,432,780 | 31.7% | 63.1% | 5.2% |
| 2040 | 322,595,767 | 29.5% | 64.8% | 5.7% |
| 2045 | 345,818,945 | 28.1% | 65.8% | 6.2% |
| 2050 | 367,808,468 | 26.6% | 66.5% | 6.9% |
Structure of population
The table below shows Pakistan's population structure by five-year age group and sex using data from the 2023 census. 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, 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.
| Age group | Male | Female | Total | Percent | |
| Total | 123,824,681 | 116,613,077 | 240,458,089 | 106.12 | 100.0% |
| 0 – 4 | 18,744,989 | 17,726,432 | 36,471,421 | 105.1 | 14.0% |
| 5 – 9 | 16,566,852 | 15,705,284 | 32,272,136 | 108.8 | 14.5% |
| 10 – 14 | 14,971,914 | 13,817,137 | 28,790,182 | 111.8 | 11.8% |
| 15 – 19 | 12,581,753 | 11,569,893 | 24,154,118 | 108.0 | 10.3% |
| 20 – 24 | 10,323,755 | 10,141,864 | 20,468,713 | 100.0 | 8.9% |
| 25 – 29 | 8,946,770 | 9,016,962 | 17,967,161 | 98.8 | 7.9% |
| 30 – 34 | 7,730,953 | 8,026,004 | 15,759,670 | 96.4 | 6.8% |
| 35 – 39 | 7,313,967 | 7,047,727 | 14,364,278 | 102.2 | 5.8% |
| 40 – 44 | 6,471,820 | 6,063,242 | 12,536,758 | 101.5 | 4.6% |
| 45 – 49 | 5,095,175 | 4,624,839 | 9,721,110 | 104.9 | 3.8% |
| 50 – 54 | 4,219,234 | 3,827,003 | 8,047,113 | 110.4 | 3.3% |
| 55 – 59 | 3,455,455 | 2,933,026 | 6,388,995 | 113.8 | 2.4% |
| 60 – 64 | 2,247,341 | 2,063,695 | 4,311,861 | 108.9 | 2.1% |
| 65 – 69 | 1,557,733 | 1,393,718 | 2,952,013 | 111.8 | 1.4% |
| 70 – 74 | 1,131,916 | 1,001,805 | 2,134,220 | 113.0 | 1.0% |
| 75 or more | 1,338,251 | 1,287,621 | 2,626,523 | 103.9 | 1.26% |
| Age group | Male | Female | Total | Percent | |
| 0 – 14 | 43,533,720 | 40,182,776 | 83 716 496 | 108.3 | 40.3% |
| 15 – 64 | 58,778,374 | 57,478,712 | 116,257,086 | 102.3 | 56.0% |
| 65+ | 4,027,900 | 3,683,144 | 7,711,044 | 109.4 | 3.7% |
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 the 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 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.| Province or Territory | 1951 | 1961 | 1972 | 1981 | 1998 | 2017 | 2023 | ||
 Punjab, Pakistan|name=PunjabUrbanizationThe 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 54% as of 2023, Sindh is the country's most urbanised province, just after Punjab. This is largely fuelled by the growth of Karachi, which economically dominates the province and attracts migrants from the rest of the province. On the other hand, the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan both share very low urbanisation rates.
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