ISLAMABAD, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Population of Pakistan has surged to 207.8 million with an annual growth of 2.4 percent over a period of 19 years, according to an initial result of the latest nationwide census released on Friday.
The Pakistani Bureau of Statistics presented the summary of the 6th Population and Housing Census 2017 to the Council of Common Interests in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
The initial results showed that the country's population witnessed a 57-percent increase during 1998-2017.
According to the report, the majority of the population, an estimated 132.189 million people or 63.6 percent, resides in rural areas, while the rest 36.4 percent are in urban areas, comparing to the rural ratio of 65.6 percent and 34.4 percent of urban population in 1998.
A decline in population growth rate was witnessed at the national level and in east Punjab and south Sindh provinces, whereas an increase was recorded in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), southwestern Balochistan and northwest federally administered tribal areas of the country.
Punjab remains the largest province in terms of population with 110.1 million or 52.94 percent of the total population. The province's population in the past 19 years increased 36.4 million.
Sindh is the second largest province with 47.886 million people, constituting 23 percent of the total population. The province's population grew by 57.3 percent during past 19 years.
The KPK constitutes 14.69 percent and Balochistan takes 5.94 percent of the total population.
The capital city Islamabad's population is 2 million, marking an estimated 1.2-million increase since the 1998 census.
In tribal areas, population increased 1.8 million in the past 19 years to 5.1 million.
The prime minister and chief ministers of the all four provinces approved the provisional summary. The final results of the census will be made available next year.
