Brief Regarding Census-2017

Council of Common Interest (CCI) in its 45th meeting held on 12th April 2021, approved the Final results of Sixth Population & Housing Census-2017.

It is informed that CCI decided on 16th December, 2016 to conduct the Population and Housing Census-2017 in two phases with the support of Armed Forces. In order to conduct Population & Housing Census in the country, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) demarcated the whole country into small compact area called Census Blocks comprising of 200-250 houses on an average, with total number of 1,68,943 blocks with well-defined boundaries and maps. It is worth mentioning here that the whole delimitation process was carried out with the close coordination of Provincial Governments, Local Government, Revenue Department and District Administration. Further Provincial Coordination Committees headed by concerned Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of relevant departments i.e. Education, Revenue, Local Government as a Members were notified for conduct of transparent, credible census and for complete coverage. Similarly, Divisional, District and Census District (Tehsil / Taluka) Coordination and Vigilance Committees were notified for complete coverage of areas, monitoring of data quality and field work of Census-2017. Appointment of Field Staff (Enumerators, Circle Supervisors, Charge Superintendents) was made by the District Management from the Provincial Education, Revenue, Population Welfare and other related Departments.

Census-2017 was conducted in two phases. Each phase had duration of 30 days. Phase-I started from 15th March and ended on 14th April, 2017 in which 61 Admin Districts comprising of 79,773 blocks were enumerated. Phase-II started with a gap of 10 days from 25th April till 24th May, 2017. Eighty-Nine (89) Admin Districts comprising of 89,170 blocks were enumerated during this period. The field operation consisted of first 3 days for house listing followed by 10 days for population count and one day for enumeration of homeless population. De-Jure approach (usual place for residence) used for data collection as per practice adopted in the past censuses. In order to lend credibility to the Census operation, the pattern of 1998-Census was adopted, with a solider accompanying each enumerator. One team was assigned two blocks in the same area. The total civilian field and monitoring Staff deputed by provincial governments was 108000. The Armed Forces provided 200,000 Army Personnel for Census duty, of which, 44,000 were deployed with civilian enumerators. The remaining personnel were used for security duty, command structure and logistic support.

For successful conduct of Census, improvement in census processes and involvement of stakeholders, Government of Pakistan constituted a Sub-Committee of the Governing Council of PBS consisting of renowned Demographers and Experts on 31st January, 2017 with terms of reference to oversee the whole census process from trainings, data collection, processing and finalization of results. Similarly, provinces on request of Federal Government constituted Provincial Technical Committees to monitor
the data processing and finalization of results process. Further, team of International (5) / National (12) visited all provinces and Gilgit Baltistan to ascertain the quality of the Census and adoption of the international standards. Further, Control Rooms were established in Provincial Level and PBS Headquarters for redressal of the complaints receives during Census operation.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the Census results the Cabinet decided to constitute a Ministers Committee on 11.02.2020 for detailed deliberations on the matter with stakeholders and for recommendations regarding finalization of results of Census-2017. The Committee conducted six meetings and after extensive discussions & considerations submitted its report with recommendations for approval of results of Census-2017 in a larger national interest and to the conduct next census earlier possible by adopting modern technologies. The Cabinet in its meeting held on 22.12.2020 approved the Committee recommendations for forwarding it to CCI for final consideration being the competent forum. The CCI in its meeting held on 12.04.2021 deliberated on the subject and approved the final results of Census-2017. According to the final results of Census-2017 the population of Pakistan is 207.68 million (with -0.043% difference with provisional results) with population growth rate of 2.40% from 1998 to 2017 with 106.3 million males and 101.3 million females.