ISLAMABAD, June 13: Islamabad has registered the highest population density increase in the country over the years, the Economic Survey 2001-02 showed.
According to the survey during the year 2002, population density in Islamabad is estimated to be 1,026 persons per square kilometre, one of the highest in the country. The lowest population density is in Balochistan where 26 persons inhabit one square kilometre of the territory.
The most populous province is Punjab, having population density of 393 persons, followed by the NWFP, 262; Sindh, 237 and FATA, 123 persons per square kilometre.
“The highest increase has been observed in the case of Islamabad while all four provinces have witnessed increase in the range of 54 to 59 per cent.”
The population of Islamabad, the Economic Survey 2001-02 said, increased from 94 million in 1951 to 951 million in 2002. The largest population increase in Islamabad occurred during the period 1951 to 1981 when it increased by 262 per cent. During 1981-1998, there was 134 per cent increase in population while in the period from 1998-2002, the population has increased by another 17 per cent to 951 million in 906 square kilometres of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The population, the survey said, was unevenly distributed over the four provinces and the ICT.
The NWFP, having 9.1 per cent of the country’s total area of 796,095 square kilometres, has 13.4 per cent population; Punjab 25.8 per cent area and 55.5 per cent population; Sindh 17.7 per cent area and 23 per cent population; Balochistan 43.6 per cent area and five per cent population and Islamabad with only 0.1 per cent area has 0.70 per cent of the country’s total population.
Pakistan, ranking as the seventh most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 145.96 million, registered a decrease in population growth from an average of slightly above three per cent to 2.16 per cent in 2002. In the next three years, the plan is to reduce the population growth rate to 1.8 per cent.
In a timeframe of roughly two generations, the population of the country has increased 4.5 times from 32.5 million in 1947 to 145.96 million in mid 2002 at a rate of 2.8 per cent per annum.
According to the Economic Survey, the growing population and relatively lesser investment in education during the past years have contributed to the increase in the number of illiterates in the country which have more than doubled from 22 million in 1961 to 54 million in 2001.
Identifying the problems associated with population increase, the survey said Pakistan had more mouths to feed, more families to house, more children to educate and more people looking for gainful employment.
During 2002, the survey said, the number of unemployed persons in the country increased from 3.18 million in 2001 to 3.25 million in 2002.