The government will release provisional results of the country's largest-ever population census by the end of July, Radio Pakistan reported.

The information was shared by Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa during a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Thursday.

Bajwa revealed that during Pakistan's sixth housing and population census, 151 districts of the four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) were covered.

The first phase of the census ended on April 15, while the second phase was completed on May 25.

Finance Minister Dar, meanwhile, said that the entire headcount was conducted in accordance with the set timelines.

He said the last census was conducted in 1998 by the PML-N government and it was after a gap of almost two decades that the sixth census is being conducted, again by the PML-N government.

The government has spent Rs18.5 billion on the census, of which Rs6bn was spent on army personnel and a similar amount on the PBS staff. The remaining Rs6.5bn was spent on providing transportation.

The first census in the country was conducted in 1951, the second in 1961, the third in 1972 instead of 1971, due to political turmoil, and the fourth census was conducted in 1981. The fifth census, which was due in 1991, was conducted in March 1998 with help from the army. Under the Constitution, the government is supposed to conduct the census every 10 years.