Facts and Figures

Pakistan is a developing country with the world's sixth-largest population.

economic growth rate that has been consistently positive since the 1951 recession.

Pakistan's GDP in 2006 was estimated at approximately $475 billion.

The World Bank classifies Pakistan as a low-income economy.

Population:  165,803,560 (2006) is growing at about 1.96%.

Population below Poverty line: 23% (2006).

Labor Force: 48.29 million.

Unemployment rate: 6.6% (2006 est).

Approximately 50% of adults are literate. Female literacy in Pakistan is 29% compared to Male literacy at 55%.

Life expectancy is about 64 years.

As much as 51% of the extremely poor tenants, borrow money from the landlords. From these as many as 57.4% work on the landlord’s owner cultivated portion of the land without any wages at all, and 14% work for a daily wage of only Rs 28 which is substantially below the market wage rate for unskilled labour.

Health is a major trigger that pushes people into poverty and the poor into deeper poverty. As many as 65% of the poor were ill at the time of the interview for this studyand lost as much as three months of the year to illness. Due to the inadequacy of the government’s health facilities as many as 85% of the poor go to private medical practitioners/hospitals for treatment, often having to borrow money to do so.