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Population growth rate registers 2 percent in Pakistan

Posted on: Friday, 13 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

Population growth rate registers 2 percent in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Population growth rate in Pakistan registers a two percent annually which is pushing more people below poverty line, local English newspaper Dawn on Friday quoted a economic survey as saying.

With the population growing at 2.1 percent annually and addition of 3.1 million people every year, Pakistan's population will reach 217 million by 2020, according to the Economic Survey 2002-03 issued on Thursday.

Pakistan, said the report, faces a formidable challenge of tackling the issue of economic development and poverty reduction.

Therefore, with such sizable addition to the population, it will not only dilute the result of the country's development efforts, but also create unsustainable level of demand on the already scarce resources to cater to the needs of the growing population.

However, the report underlined an encouraging note that the demographic transition has started taking place and the population growth rate is estimated to decline to 1.8 percent by the middle of 2004.

The high population growth is a matter of national concern. Hence, the thrust for improvement in quality of life, social uplift and economic development can be augmented by improving the effectiveness of population welfare program.

Almost one third of the Pakistanis are living below the poverty line and if the current trend of population growth continues there will be more unemployment in the country.

The report also revealed that with a population of 149 million in 2003, Pakistan ranks seventh in terms of world population size.

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