While the digital census was halted for Eid, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) stated on Friday that 235 million people had been tallied – a massive increase of 27 million, or 12.98%, since 2017.
According to the census that year, the country’s population was 207.68 million people.
According to Sarwar Gondal, the PBS spokeswoman, digital census operations will restart after the Eid holidays, in accordance with directions from the Census Monitoring Committee (CMC).
He stated that the seventh Population and Housing Census field activities had been paused for Eid from April 21 to April 25.
According to an official notification, more than 16.5 million people have been counted in Karachi, while 11.5 million have been counted in Lahore.
According to PBS, the digital census is suspended during Eid.
So far, nearly 116 million people have been counted in Punjab, while 52 million people have been counted in Sindh.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 39 million people, while Balochistan has 19 million.
According to statistics, the country’s population, as well as the populations of Karachi and Lahore, have increased significantly.
Real-time monitoring
The real-time data progress monitoring dashboards, built in collaboration with NADRA and delivered by PBS to provincial and district governments on a daily basis, assist provincial governments in spotting any abnormalities, areas missed, and other emerging anomalies.
Every day, the data received is examined at the PBS headquarters and instantly forwarded to the provinces for resolution in order to ensure quick response and total coverage.
The current housing and population census is a historic milestone because it is South Asia’s first digital count of its sort.
The shift to digitalisation has enabled provincial and district administrations to rapidly detect overlooked areas by utilising geo-tagged houses and the quality of data entered for them in real-time by enumerators.
The PBS has also helped the provincial and district administrations by establishing a helpline, 080057574, and SMS gateway 9727, where anyone may call with questions or report anyone or any area that has been missed.
A total of 495 census support centres are currently serving as referral centres for all missing areas.
The current methodology ensures universal inclusion, which means that every individual living in a location for six months or planning to live there for another six months and using resources in that location will be counted, regardless of nationality, geography, ethnicity, identity, affiliations, politics, caste, or creed.
The census is a national duty to inform policymaking, decision-making, future planning, and development, according to the General Statistics Reorganisation Act of 2011 and UN Conventions.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has digitalized the census to make it easier to use while also maintaining verifiability, transparency, and accountability.
The exceptional work of the provincial and district administrations has offered hope that Pakistan is on the right track, bringing it up to speed with nations that use technology to varying degrees to conduct their censuses.
The United States, the United Kingdom, India, Iran, Egypt, and Bangladesh are among them.
