The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey is one of the main mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the PRSP. It provides a set of representative, population-based estimates of social indicators and their progress under the PRSP. These include intermediate as well as ‘output’ measures, which assess what is being provided by the social sectors – enrolment rates in education, for example. They include a range of ‘outcome’ measures, which assess the welfare of the population – Immunization Rate, for example.

An important objective of the PSLM Survey is to try to establish what the distributional impact of PRSP has been. Policymakers need to know, for example, whether the poor have benefited from the programme or whether increased government expenditure on the social sectors has been captured by the better off

In the remainder of this introduction, a description of the 2004-05 PSLM Survey is provided. In the following chapters, data relating education, health, household assets / amenities, immunization, pre and postnatal care and satisfaction of services is given.

Objectives and scope of analysis

This is the first analytical report of the PSLM Survey.  It provides an overview of the findings in all sectors and compares them with the previous round of PIHS.  Given that the PSLM is a large, complex household survey that collects information on a number of different topics, the tabulations presented here comprise the important tables at National/ Provincial level and more detailed analytical reports covering district level indicators will follow.

Universe

The universe of this survey consists of all urban and rural areas of the four provinces and Islamabad excluding military restricted areas.

Sample Size and Its Allocation: Keeping in view the objectives of the survey the sample size for the four provinces has been fixed at 74420 households comprising 5204 sample village/ enumeration blocks, which is expected to produce reliable results at each district. However, the total sample size including AJK, NA and FATA is 76520 households.

PSLM 2004-05 Reports