This statistic shows the biggest cities in Pakistan as of 2023. In 2023, approximately 18.87 million people lived in Karāchi, making it the biggest city in Pakistan.

Major Cities in Pakistan by Population

Population in largest city in Pakistan was reported at 17236230 in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on March of 2025.

Pakistan PK: Population in Largest City data was reported at 15,020,931.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 14,650,981.000 Person for 2016. Pakistan PK: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 6,793,799.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 15,020,931.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 1,853,325.000 Person in 1960. Pakistan PK: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Pakistan – Table PK.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

This dataset is about cities in Pakistan, featuring 4 columns: city, country, population, and region. The preview is ordered by population (descending).

Pakistan PK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 20.922 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 20.928 % for 2016. Pakistan PK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 21.610 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 23.038 % in 1980 and a record low of 18.670 % in 1960. Pakistan PK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Pakistan – Table PK.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted average;

In 2023, the share of urban population in Pakistan remained nearly unchanged at around 38.04 percent. Still, the share reached its highest value in the observed period in 2023. The urban population refers to the share of the total population living in urban centers. Each country has their own definition of what constitutes an urban center (based on population size, area, or space between dwellings, among others), therefore international comparisons may be inconsistent.

Major Cities Population

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Hyderabad, Pakistan metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Rawalpindi, Pakistan metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

Abstract

The Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) was conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), Government of Pakistan, and the World Bank. The survey was part of the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) household surveys that have been conducted in a number of developing countries with the assistance of the World Bank. The purpose of these surveys is to provide policy makers and researchers with individual, household, and community level data needed to analyze the impact of policy initiatives on living standards of households.

The Pakistan Integrated Household Survey was carried out in 1991. This nationwide survey gathered individual and household level data using a multi-purpose household questionnaire. Topics covered included housing conditions, education, health, employment characteristics, selfemployment activities, consumption, migration, fertility, credit and savings, and household energy consumption. Community level and price data were also collected during the course of the survey.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Households
• Individuals
• Communities

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for the PIHS was drawn using a multi-stage stratified sampling procedure from the Master Sample Frame developed by FBS based on the 1981 Population Census.

SAMPLE FRAME:

This sample frame covers all four provinces (Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, and Balochistan) and both urban and rural areas. Excluded, however, are the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, military restricted areas, the districts of Kohistan, Chitral and Malakand and protected areas of NWFP. According to the FBS, the population of the excluded areas amounts to about 4 percent of the total population of Pakistan. Also excluded are households which depend entirely on charity for their living.

The sample frame consists of three main domains: (a) the self-representing cities; (b) other urban areas; and (c) rural areas. These domains are further split up into a number of smaller strata based on the system used by the Government to divide the country into administrative units. The four provinces of Pakistan mentioned above are divided into 20 divisions altogether; each of these divisions in turn is then further split into several districts. The system used to divide the sample frame into the three domains and the various strata is as follows: (a) Self-representing cities: All cities with a population of 500,000 or more are classified as self-representing cities. These include Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad and Peshawar. In addition to these cities, Islamabad and Quetta are also included in this group as a result of being the national and provincial capitals respectively. Each self-representing city is considered as a separate stratum, and is further sub-stratified into low, medium, and high income groups on the basis of information collected at the time of demarcation or updating of the urban area sample frame. (b) Other urban areas: All settlements with a population of 5,000 or more at the time of the 1981 Population Census are included in this group (excluding the self-representing cities mentioned above). Urban areas in each division of the four provinces are considered to be separate strata. (c) Rural areas: Villages and communities with population less than 5,000 (at the time of the Census) are classified as rural areas. Settlements within each district of the country are considered to be separate strata with the exception of Balochistan province where, as a result of the relatively sparse population of the districts, each division instead is taken to be a stratum.

Main strata of the Master Sample frame

Domain / Punjab / Sindh / NWFP / Balochistan / PAKISTAN Self-representing cities / 6 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 10 Other urban areas / 8 / 3 / 5 / 4 / 20 Rural areas / 30 / 14 / 10 / 4 / 58 Total 44 / 19 / 16 / 9 / 88

As the above table shows, the sample frame consists of 88 strata altogether. Households in each stratum of the sample frame are exclusively and exhaustively divided into PSUs. In urban areas, each city or town is divided into a number of enumeration blocks with welldefined boundaries and maps. Each enumeration block consists of about 200-250 households, and is taken to be a separate PSU. The list of enumeration blocks is updated every five years or so, with the list used for the PIHS having been modified on the basis of the Census of Establishments conducted in 1988. In rural areas, demarcation of PSUs has been done on the basis of the list of villages/mouzas/dehs published by the Population Census Organization based on the 1981 Census. Each of these villages/mouzas/dehs is taken to be a separate PSU. Altogether, the sample frame consists of approximately 18,000 urban and 43,000 rural PSUs.

SAMPLE SELECTION:

The PIHS sample comprised 4,800 households drawn from 300 PSUs throughout the country. Sample PSUs were divided equally between urban and rural areas, with at least two PSUs selected from each of the strata. Selection of PSUs from within each stratum was carried out using the probability proportional to estimated size method. In urban areas, estimates of the size of PSUs were based on the household count as found during the 1988 Census of Establishments. In rural areas, these estimates were based on the population count during the 1981 Census.

Once sample PSUs had been identified, a listing of all households residing in the PSU was made in all those PSUs where such a listing exercise had not been undertaken recently. Using systematic sampling with a random start, a short-list of 24 households was prepared for each PSU. Sixteen households from this list were selected to be interviewed from the PSU; every third household on the list was designated as a replacement household to be interviewed only if it was not possible to interview either of the two households immediately preceding it on the list.

As a result of replacing households that could not be interviewed because of non-responses, temporary absence, and other such reasons, the actual number of households interviewed during the survey - 4,794 - was very close to the planned sample size of 4,800 households. Moreover, following a pre-determined procedure for replacing households had the added advantage of minimizing any biases that may otherwise have arisen had field teams been allowed more discretion in choosing substitute households.

SAMPLE DESIGN EFFECTS:

The three-stage stratified sampling procedure outlined above has several advantages from the point of view of survey organization and implementation. Using this procedure ensures that all regions or strata deemed important are represented in the sample drawn for the survey. Picking clusters of households or PSUs in the various strata rather than directly drawing households randomly from throughout the country greatly reduces travel time and cost. Finally, selecting a fixed number of households in each PSU makes it easier to distribute the workload evenly amongst field teams. However, in using this procedure to select the sample for the survey, two important matters need to be given consideration: (a) sampling weights or raising factors have to be first calculated to get national estimates from the survey data; and (b) the standard errors for estimates obtained from the data need to be adjusted to take account for the use of this procedure.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The PIHS used three questionnaires: a household questionnaire, a community questionnaire, and a price questionnaire.

HOUSEHOLD QUESTIONNAIRE:

The PIHS questionnaire comprised 17 sections, each of which covered a separate aspect of household activity. The various sections of the household questionnaire were as follows: 1. HOUSEHOLD INFORMATION 2. HOUSING 3. EDUCATION 4. HEALTH 5. WAGE EMPLOYMENT 6. FAMILY LABOR 7. ENERGY 8. MIGRATION 9. FARMING AND LIVESTOCK 10. NON-FARM ENTERPRISE ACTIVITIES 11. NON-FOOD EXPENDITURES AND INVENTORY OF DURABLE GOODS 12. FOOD EXPENSES AND HOME PRODUCTION 13. MARRIAGE AND MATERNITY HISTORY 14. ANTHROPOMETRICS 15. CREDIT AND SAVINGS 16. TRANSFERS AND REMITTANCES 17. OTHER INCOME

The household questionnaire was designed to be administered in two visits to each sample household. Apart from avoiding the problem of interviewing household members in one long stretch, scheduling two visits also allowed the teams to improve the quality of the data collected.

During the first visit to the household (Round 1), the enumerators covered sections 1 to 8, and fixed a date with the designated respondents of the household for the second visit. During the second visit (Round 2), which was normally held two weeks after the first visit, the enumerators covered the remaining portion of the questionnaire and resolved any omissions or inconsistencies that were detected during data entry of information from the first part of the survey.

Since many of the sections of the questionnaire pertained specifically to female members of the household, female interviewers were included in conducting the survey. The household questionnaire was split into two parts (Male and Female). Sections such as SECTION 3: EDUCATION, which solicited information on all individual members of the household (male as well as female) were included in both parts of the questionnaire. Other sections such as SECTION 2: HOUSING and SECTION 12: FOOD EXPENSES AND HOME PRODUCTION , which collected data at the aggregate household level, were included in either the male questionnaire or the female questionnaire, depending upon which member of the household was more likely

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

Abstract

A primary objective of the national Time Use Survey in Pakistan is to account for the 24 hours time in term of the full spectrum of activities carried out during the duration. The objectives of the survey are specified as under:- - To profile the quantum and distribution of paid/unpaid work as a means to infer policy/programme implications from the perspective of gender equity. - To collect and analyze the time use pattern of the individuals in order to help draw inferences for employment and welfare programmes. - To collect and analyze the comprehensive information about the time spent by people on marketed and non-marketed economic activities covered under the 1993-SNA, non-marketed non-SNA activities within the General Production Boundary and personal care and related activities that cannot be delegated to others. - To use the data in generating more reliable estimates on work force.

Geographic coverage

The survey covers all urban and rural areas of the four provinces of Pakistan defined as such by 1998 Population Census excluding Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and certain administrative areas of NWFP. The population of geographic areas excluded from the survey constitutes about 2 percent of the total population as enumerated in 1998 Population Census. The population excluded is located in difficult terrain and its enumeration through personal interview is not possible within the given constraints of time, access and cost.

Analysis unit

Households Individuals

Universe

The universe consists of all urban and rural areas of the four provinces of Pakistan, defined as such by Population Census 1998, excluding FATA & Military Restricted Areas. The population of excluded area constitutes about 3% of the total population and is located in different terrain.

Sampling procedure

Sampling Frame Federal Bureau of Statistics has developed its own sampling frame for all urban areas of the country. Each city/town has been divided into a number of enumeration blocks. Each enumeration block consists of 200-250 households on the average with well-defined boundaries and maps. The sampling frame i.e. lists of enumeration blocks as up-dated through Economic Census 2003-04 and the lists of villages/mouzas/dehs published by Population Census Organization as a result of 1998 Population Census have been taken as sampling frame. Enumeration blocks and villages are considered as primary sampling unites (PSUs) for urban and rural domain respectively.

Stratification a) Urban Domain i) Large Sized Cities Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Bahawapur, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad are considered as large sized cities. Each of these cities constitutes a separate stratum which is further sub-stratified according to low, middle, high income groups based on the information collected in respect of each enumeration block at the time of demarcation/up-dating of urban area sampling frame. ii) Remaining urban areas After excluding the population of large sized cities from the population of respective administrative division, the remaining urban population of administrative division of four provinces is grouped together to form a stratum called other urban. Thus ex-division in remaining urban areas in the four provinces constitutes a stratum. b) Rural Domain In rural domain, each administrative district in the Punjab, Sindh and NWF Provinces is considered as independent and explicit stratum whereas, in Balochistan, each administrative division constitutes a stratum.

Sample size and its Allocation Keeping in view the resources available, a sample size of 19600 sample households has been considered appropriate to provide estimates of key characteristics at the desired level. The entire sample of households (SSUs) has been drawn from 1388 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) out of which 652 are urban and 736 are rural. In order to control seasonal variation etc. sample has been distributed evenly over four quarters. This has facilitated to capture the variation due to any seasonal activity as urban population is more heterogeneous therefore, a higher proportion of sample size has been allocated to urban domain. Similarly NWFP and Balochistan being the smaller province, have been assigned higher proportion of sample in order to get reliable estimates. After fixing the sample size at provincial level, further distribution of sample PSUs to different strata in rural and urban domains in each province has been made proportionately.

Sample Design A three-stage stratified sample design has been adopted for the survey. Sample Selection Procedure a) Selection of Primary Sampling Unites (PSUs) Enumeration blocks in urban domain and mouzas/dehs/villages in rural domain are taken as primary sampling unites (PSUs). In the urban domain, sample PSUs from each ultimate stratum/sub-stratum is selected with probability proportional to size (PPS) method of sampling scheme. In urban domain, the number of households in enumeration block as up-dated through Economic Census 2003-04 and population of 1998 Census for each village/mouza/deh are considered as measure of size. b) Section of Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs) Households within sample PSUs are taken as secondary sampling unites (SSUs). A specified number of households i.e. 12 from each urban sample PSU and 16 from each rural sample PSU are selected with equal probability using systematic sampling technique with a random start. Different households are selected in each quarter. c) Selection of Third Stage Sampling Units i.e. Individuals/Persons (TSUs) From the sample households, individuals/persons aged 10+ years within each sample households (SSUs) have been taken as third stage sampling units (TSUs). Two individuals aged 10 years and above among the eligible individuals/persons from each sample household have been interviewed using a selection grid.The grid and selection steps are detailed on p13 of the survey report available under external resources.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire has been framed in the light of contemporary precedents and practices in vogue in the developing countries. The recommendations of Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiatives (GRBI) expert who visited Pakistan in June 2006 have been taken into account. Further, the advice of local experts hailing both from data producing and using agencies has also been considered. Survey Questionnaire and Manual of Instructions, for the Supervisors & Enumerators, was finalized jointly by Federal Bureau of Statistics and GRBI Project staff. The questionnaire was also pre-tested and reviewed accordingly. The questionnaire adopted for the survey is given at Annexure-A. All the households selected in the sample stand interviewed. Diary part of the questionnaire is filled-in from two respondents selected from each of the enumerated households. The questionnaire consists of the following six parts. Section-1: Identification of the area, respondents, detail of field visits and staff entrusted with supervision, editing and coding. Section-2: Detailed information about the socio-economic and demographic particulars of the selected households and individuals. Some of the important household characteristics i.e. ownership status and type of the household, earthquake damage, household items, sources of energy, drinking water, transport, health & education facilities, sources of income, monthly income, age and sex composition of the population. Section-3: Demographic detail such as age, sex, marital status, educational level, having children, employment status, source of income etc. of the selected respondent of that household Section-4: Comprised of diary to record the activities performed by the first selected respondent through the 24 hours period between 4.00 a.m. of the day preceding the day of interview and 3.00 a.m. on the day of the interview. Section-5 and 6 pertain to the second selected respondent of the selected household. The diary which is the core instrument of the time use study is divided into forty eight half-hour slots. An open ended question about the activities performed during the thirty minutes was asked from the respondent. Provision for minimum of recording three activities through half hour slot was made. In case of reporting more than one activity, the respondent was probed whether these activities were carried out simultaneously or one after the other. Similarly, the two locations of performing the activities were also investigated in the diary part of the questionnaire. The activities recorded in the diary are then coded by the field enumerator according to the activity classification given at Annex-B.

Cleaning operations

Soon after data collection, the field supervisors manually clean, edit and check the filled in questionnaire and refer back to field where necessary. This does not take much time since most of the manual editing is done in the field. Further editing is done by the subject matter section at the Headquarter. Also during data entry, further editing of error identified by applying computer edit checks is done. In edit checks, data ranges in numerical values are used to eliminate erroneous data as a result of mistakes made during coding. Thus, the survey records are edited and corrected through a series of computer processing stages.

Abstract

The 2006-07 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) was undertaken to address the monitoring and evaluation needs of maternal and child health and family planning programmes. The survey was designed with the broad objective to provide policymakers, primarily in the Ministries of Population Welfare and Health, with information to improve programmatic interventions based on empirical evidence. The aim is to provide reliable estimates of the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) at the national level and a variety of other health and population indicators at national, urban-rural, and provincial levels.

The 2006-07 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) is the fifth in a series of demographic surveys conducted by the National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) since 1990. However, the PDHS 2006-07 is the second survey conducted as part of the worldwide Demographic andHealth Surveys programme. The survey was conducted under the aegis of the Ministry of Population Welfare and implemented by the National Institute of Population Studies. Other collaborating institutions include the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Aga Khan University, and the National Committee for Maternal and Neonatal Health. Technical support was provided by Macro International Inc. and financial support was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) provided logistical support for monitoring the fieldwork for the PDHS.

The 2006-07 PDHS supplements and complements the information collected through the censuses and demographic surveys conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics. It updates the available information on population and health issues, and provides guidance in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating health and population programmes in Pakistan. Some of the findings of the PDHS may seem at variance with data compiled by other sources. This may be due to differences in methodology, reference period, wording of questions and subsequent interpretation. This fact may be kept in mind while analyzing and comparing PDHS data with other sources. The results of the survey assist in the monitoring of the progress made towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The 2006-07 PDHS includes topics related to fertility levels and determinants, family planning, fertility preferences, infant, child and maternal mortality and their causes, maternal and child health, immunization and nutritional status of mothers and children, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and malaria. The 2006-07 PDHS also includes direct estimation of maternal mortality and its causes at the national level for the first time in Pakistan. The survey provides all other estimates for national, provincial and urban-rural domains. This being the fifth survey of its kind, there is considerable trend information on reproductive health, fertility and family planning over the past one and a half decades.

More specifically, PDHS had the following objectives: - Collect quality data on fertility levels and preference, family planning knowledge and use, childhood—and especially neonatal—mortality levels and awareness regarding HIV/ AIDS and other indicators relevant to the Millennium Development Goals and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper; - Produce a reliable national estimate of the MMR for Pakistan, as well as information on the direct and indirect causes of maternal deaths using verbal autopsy instruments; - Investigate factors that impact on maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality (i.e., antenatal and delivery care, treatment of pregnancy complications, and postnatal care); - Improve the capacity of relevant organizations to implement surveys and analyze and disseminate survey findings.

Geographic coverage

The survey provides estimates at national, urban and rural, and provincial levels (each as a separate domain).

The sample for the 2006-07 PDHS represents the population of Pakistan excluding the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) and restricted military and protected areas. Although the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were initially included in the sample, due to security and political reasons, it was not possible to cover any of the sample points in the FATA.

In urban areas, cities like Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalbad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Quetta, and Islamabad were considered as large-sized cities.

Analysis unit

• Household
• Children under five years
• Women age 15-49
• Men

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

The 2006-07 PDHS is the largest-ever household based survey conducted in Pakistan. The sample is designed to provide reliable estimates for a variety of health and demographic variables for various domains of interest. The survey provides estimates at national, urban and rural, and provincial levels (each as a separate domain). One of the main objectives of the 2006-07 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) is to provide a reliable estimate of the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) at the national level. In order to estimate MMR, a large sample size was required. Based on prior rough estimates of the level of maternal mortality in Pakistan, a sample of about 100,000 households was proposed to provide estimates of MMR for the whole country. For other indicators, the survey is designed to produce estimates at national, urban-rural, and provincial levels (each as a separate domain). The sample was not spread geographically in proportion to the population; rather, the smaller provinces (e.g., Balochistan and NWFP) as well as urban areas were over-sampled. As a result of these differing sample proportions, the PDHS sample is not self-weighting at the national level.

The sample for the 2006-07 PDHS represents the population of Pakistan excluding the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) and restricted military and protected areas. Although the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were initially included in the sample, due to security and political reasons, it was not possible to cover any of the sample points in the FATA.

In urban areas, cities like Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalbad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Quetta, and Islamabad were considered as large-sized cities. Each of these cities constitutes a stratum, which has further been substratified into low, middle, and high-income groups based on the information collected during the updating of the urban sampling frame. After excluding the population of large-sized cities from the population of respective former administrative divisions, the remaining urban population within each of the former administrative divisions of the four provinces was grouped together to form a stratum.

In rural areas, each district in Punjab, Sindh, and NWFP provinces is considered as an independent stratum. In Balochistan province, each former administrative division has been treated as a stratum. The survey adopted a two-stage, stratified, random sample design. The first stage involved selecting 1,000 sample points (clusters) with probability proportional to size-390 in urban areas and 610 in rural areas. A total of 440 sample points were selected in Punjab, 260 in Sindh, 180 in NWFP, 100 in Balochistan, and 20 in FATA. In urban areas, the sample points were selected from a frame maintained by the FBS, consisting of 26,800 enumeration blocks, each including about 200-250 households. The frame for rural areas consists of the list of 50,588 villages/mouzas/dehs enumerated in the 1998 population census.

The FBS staff undertook the task of a fresh listing of the households in the selected sample points. Aside from 20 sample points in FATA, the job of listing of households could not be done in four areas of Balochistan due to inability of the FBS to provide household listings because of unrest in those areas. Another four clusters in NWFP could not be covered because of resistance and refusal of the community. In other words, the survey covered a total of 972 sample points.

The second stage of sampling involved selecting households. In each sample point, 105 households were selected by applying a systematic random sampling technique. This way, a total of 102,060 households were selected. Out of 105 sampled households, ten households in each sample point were selected using a systematic random sampling procedure to conduct interviews for the Long Household and the Women's Questionnaires. Any ever-married woman aged 12-49 years who was a usual resident of the household or a visitor in the household who stayed there the night before the survey was eligible for interview.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face

Research instrument

The following six types of questionnaires were used in the PDHS: - Community Questionnaire - Short Household Questionnaire - Long Household Questionnaire - Women’s Questionnaire - Maternal Verbal Autopsy Questionnaire - Child Verbal Autopsy Questionnaire

The contents of the Household and Women’s Questionnaires were based on model questionnaires developed by the MEASURE DHS programme, while the Verbal Autopsy Questionnaires were developed by Pakistani experts and the Community Questionnaire was patterned on the basis of one used by NIPS in previous surveys.

NIPS developed the draft questionnaires in consultation with a broad spectrum of technical experts, government agencies, and local and international organizations so as to reflect relevant issues of population, family planning, HIV/AIDS, and other health areas. A number of meetings were organized

Abstract

The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2005-06 is aimed to provide detailed outcome indicators on Education, Health, Population Welfare, Water & Sanitation and Income & Expenditure. The data provided by this survey is used by the government in formulating the policies in social sector initiated under Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) in the overall context of MDGs.

Geographic coverage

National Coverage

Analysis unit

Households and Individuals.

Universe

The universe of this survey consists of all urban and rural areas of the four provinces and Islamabad excluding military restricted areas

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Sampling Frame:

The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) has developed its own urban area frame, which was up-dated in 2003. Each city/town has been divided into enumeration blocks consisting of 200- 250 households identifiable through sketch map. Each enumeration block has been classified into three categories of income groups i.e. low, middle and high keeping in view the living standard of the majority of the people. List of villages published by Population Census Organization obtained as a consequence of Population Census 1998 has been taken as rural frame.

Stratification Plan:

A. Urban Domain: Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Sialkot, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar and Quetta, have been considered as large sized cities. Each of these cities constitute a separate stratum and has further been sub-stratified according to low, middle and high-income groups. After excluding population of large sized city (s), the remaining urban population in each defunct Division in all the provinces has been grouped together to form a stratum.

B. Rural Domain: Each district in the Punjab, Sindh and NWFP provinces has been grouped together to constitute a stratum. Whereas defunct administrative Division has been treated as stratum in Balochistan province.

Sample Size and Its Allocation: Keeping in view the objectives of the survey the sample size for the four provinces has been fixed at 15453 households comprising 1109 sample village/ enumeration blocks, which is expected to produce reliable results.

Sample Design: A two-stage stratified sample design has been adopted in this survey.

Selection of Primary Sampling Units (PSUs): Villages and enumeration blocks in urban and rural areas respectively have been taken as Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Sample PSUs have been selected from strata/sub-strata with PPS method of sampling technique.

Selection of Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs): Households within sample PSUs have been taken as Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs). A specified number of households i.e. 16 and 12 from each sample PSU of rural & urban area have been selected respectively using systematic sampling technique with a random start.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

At both individual and household level, the PSLM Survey collects information on a wide range of topics using an integrated questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a number of different sections, each of which looks at a particular aspect of household behavior or welfare. Data collected under Round II include education, diarrhea, immunization, reproductive health, pregnancy history, maternity history, family planning, pre and post-natal care and access to basic services.

Cleaning operations

Data quality in PSLM Survey has been ensured through built in system of checking of field work by the supervisors in the field as well as teams from the headquarters. Regional/ Field offices ensured the data quality through preliminary editing at their office level. The entire data entry was carried at the FBS headquarter Islamabad and the data entry programme used had a number of in built consistency checks.

Data appraisal

To determine the reliability of the estimates, Coefficient of Variation (CV’s) and confidence Limit of important key indicators have been worked out and are attached as Appendix - C of the survey report (provided under Related Materials).

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Gujranwala, Pakistan metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

This collection contains two datasets: one, data used in TI-City model to predict future urban expansion in Accra, Ghana; and two, residential electricity consumption data used to map intra-urban living standards in Karachi, Pakistan. The TI-City model data are ASCII files of infrastructure and amenities that affect location decisions of households and developers. The residential electricity consumption data consist of average kilowatt hours (kw/h) of electricity consumed per month by ~ 2 million households in Karachi. The electricity consumption data is aggregated into 30m grid cells (count = 193050), with centroids and consumption values provided. The values of the points (centroids), captured under the field "Avg_Avg_Cs", represents the median of average monthly consumption of households within the 30m grid cells.

Our project addresses a critical gap in social research methodology that has important implications for combating urban poverty and promoting sustainable development in low and middle-income countries. Simply put, we're creating a low-cost tool for gathering critical information about urban population dynamics in cities experiencing rapid spatial-demographic and socioeconomic change. Such information is vital to the success of urban planning and development initiatives, as well as disaster relief efforts. By improving the information base of the actors involved in such activities we aim to improve the lives of urban dwellers across the developing world, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable. The key output for the project will be a freely available 'City Sampling Toolkit' that provides detailed instructions and opensource software tools for replicating the approach at various spatial scales.

Our research is motivated by the growing recognition that cities are critical arenas for action in global efforts to tackle poverty and transition towards more environmentally sustainable economic growth. Between now and 2050 the global urban population is projected to grow by over 2 billion, with the overwhelming majority of this growth taking place in low and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia. Developing evidence-based policies for managing this growth is an urgent task. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has observed: "Cities are increasingly the home of humanity. They are central to climate action, global prosperity, peace and human rights...To transform our world, we must transform its cities."

Unfortunately, even basic data about urban populations are lacking in many of the fastest growing cities of the world. Existing methods for gathering vital information, including censuses and sample surveys, have critical limitations in urban areas experiencing rapid change. And 'big data' approaches are not an adequate substitute for representative population data when it comes to urban planning and policymaking. We will overcome these limitations through a combination of conceptual innovation and creative integration of novel tools and techniques that have been developed for sampling, surveying and estimating the characteristics of populations that are difficult to enumerate. This, in turn, will help us capture the large (and sometimes uniquely vulnerable) 'hidden populations' in cities missed by traditional approaches.

By using freely available satellite imagery, we can get an idea of the current shape of a rapidly changing city and create a 'sampling frame' from which we then identify respondents for our survey. Importantly, and in contrast with previous approaches, we aren't simply going to count official city residents. We are interested in understanding the characteristics of the actually present population, including recent migrants, temporary residents, and those living in informal or illegal settlements, who are often not considered formal residents in official enumeration exercises. In other words, our 'inclusion criterion' for the survey exercise is presence not residence. By adopting this approach, we hope to capture a more accurate picture of city populations. We will also limit the length of our survey questionnaire to maximise responses and then use novel statistical techniques to reconstruct a rich statistical portrait that reflects a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic information.

We will pilot our methodology in a city in Pakistan, which recently completed a national census exercise that has generated some controversy with regard to the accuracy of urban population counts. To our knowledge this would be the first project ever to pilot and validate a new sampling and survey methodology at the city scale in a developing country.

This horizontal bar chart displays death rate (per 1,000 people) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population and is filtered where the country is Pakistan. The data is about countries per year.

In 2022, roughly 43 percent of Bhutan's population resided in urban areas. Comparatively, approximately 19 percent of Sri Lanka's population lived in urban areas in 2022.

Urbanization in the APAC region

The Asia-Pacific region is currently experiencing a significant trend towards urbanization, with a growing number of individuals relocating from rural areas to urban centers in pursuit of improved economic prospects. From 2015 to 2020, there was an increase in the urban population throughout Asia. The projection for the region indicates a continuation of urbanization, although at a decelerated rate. As of 2021, a third of the entire population of India resided in urban areas. The data shows a notable upsurge in urbanization in India over the past ten years, indicating a shift of the populace from rural to urban centers in search of employment opportunities and livelihood.

 Population of megacities in APAC 

The APAC region is home to some of the world's most populous megacities. According to recent data, in 2023, the annual metropolitan population growth rate of China surpassed that of other megacities in the APAC region. In contrast to other cities, the three megacities in Japan, namely Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, exhibited the lowest annual population growth rates. That same year, the APAC region was home to 28 megacities, more than ten of which were in China. India, Japan, and Pakistan also had more than once megacity each as of January 2023.

Abstract

The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey is one of the main mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). It provides a set of representative, population-based estimates of social indicators and their progress under the PRSP. These include intermediate as well as 'output' measures, which assess what is being provided by the social sectors - enrolment rates in education, for example. They include a range of 'outcome' measures, which assess the welfare of the population - Immunisation Rate, for example.

An important objective of the PSLM Survey is to try to establish what the distributional impact of PRSP has been. Policymakers need to know, for example, whether the poor have benefited from the programme or whether increased government expenditure on the social sectors has been captured by the better off.

Geographic coverage

National, excluding military restricted areas.

Analysis unit

• Individual
• Household

Universe

The universe of this survey consists of all urban and rural areas of the four provinces and Islamabad excluding military restricted areas.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Sampling Frame: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has developed its own area sampling frame for both Urban and Rural domains. Each city/town is divided into enumeration blocks. Each enumeration block is comprised of 200 to 250 households on the average with well-defined boundaries and maps. The list of enumeration blocks are updated from field on the prescribed proforma by Quick Count technique for urban domain in 2013 and the updated list of villages/mouzas/dehs or its part (block), based on House Listing 2011 for conduct of Population Census are taken as sampling frames. Enumeration blocks are considered as Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) for urban and rural domains respectively.

Stratification Plan Urban Domain: Large cities Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad are considered as large cities. Each of these cities constitutes a separate stratum, further substratified according to low, middle and high income groups based on the information collected in respect of each enumeration block at the time of demarcation/ updating of urban area sampling frame. Remaining Urban Areas: In all the four provinces after excluding the population of large cities from the population of an administrative division, the remaining urban population is grouped together to form a stratum. Rural Domain: Each administrative district for all four provinces namely Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan is considered as an independent stratum.

Selection of primary sampling units (PSUs): Enumeration blocks in both Urban and rural domains are taken as Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Sample PSUs from each ultimate stratum/sub-stratum are selected with probability proportional to size (PPS) method of sampling scheme. In both Urban and Rural domains, the number of households in an enumeration block is considered as measure of size.

Selection of secondary sampling units (SSUs): The listed households of sample PSUs are taken as Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs). A specified number of households i.e. 12 from each urban sample PSU and 16 from rural sample PSU are selected with equal probability using systematic sampling technique with a random start.

Sample Size and its Allocation: Keeping in view the objectives of the survey, the sample size for the four provinces has been fixed at 5428 sample blocks (PSU’s) comprising 81,992 households (SSU’s), which is expected to produce reliable results at the district level.

Detailed sampling plan is attached as Appendix A of the survey report.

Sampling deviation

It is worth mentioning here that Panjgur district of Balochistan was dropped from the scope of the survey at the allocation stage due to prevailing situation in Panjgur district. While 7 PSUs from Sindh, 13 PSUs from KP and 82 PSUs from Balochistan province ( including Kech district) were dropped from the scope of the survey during execution of the survey due to law and order situation.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

At both individual and household level, the PSLM Survey collects information on a wide range of topics using an integrated questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a number of different sections, each of which looks at a particular aspect of household behavior or welfare. Data collected under Round X includes Education, Health, Water & Sanitation and Household Economic Situation & Satisfaction by facilities and services use.

Cleaning operations

Data quality in PSLM Survey has been ensured through built in system of checking of fieldwork by the supervisors in the field as well as teams from the headquarters. Regional/ Field offices ensured the data quality through preliminary editing at their office level. The entire data entry was carried out at the PBS headquarter Islamabad and the data entry programme used had a number of in built consistency checks.