According to a statement issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday, the population of Karachi has exceeded 18.6 million people. This follows the addition of 2.6 million individuals during the ongoing 7th population census, which has been taking place for the past 23 days.
The Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, had instructed provincial governments to complete the ongoing field operation of the 7th Digital Population and Housing-2023 by May 15, leading up to the recent announcement of the resulting population.
The latest data shows that the population of Sindh has also reached over 56 million. In addition, the populations in Hyderabad, Larkana, and Sukkur Division have increased to over 12.1 million, 8 million, and 6.3 million, respectively. Furthermore, Shaheed Benazirabad has counted over six million individuals and Mirpur Khas Division has counted five million.
The government extended the field operation of the digital census until May 15, 2023, and during a May 10th meeting, the progress of field operations and the targets accomplished were reported to the chief census commissioner. The Demographer Committee analyzed demographic trends by studying the growth rate and suggested opening districts all over Pakistan for at least 10 days for analysis of abnormal blocks with less than 1.5 population growth while closing districts with greater than average growth. Districts with a growth rate of less than 1.5 were closed throughout Pakistan, but on the request of Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, enumeration of these districts was permitted from May 1 to 15.
The minister directed provincial chief commissioners to complete the exercise and submit the census report to the CII for final approval. The government has spent 34 billion PKR for this digital census, which will help them gather accurate data about the population and its distribution for better governance.