| Characteristics of Population |
| The ethnic background of Pakistan's population is extremely varied, largely because the country lies in an area that has been repeatedly invaded since earliest times. The people come from such ethnic stocks as Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Greek, Scythian, Hun, Arab, Mongol, Persian, Turkish, and Afghan. Population Characteristics Pakistan, a highly populated country, has a population (2001) of about 144,616,640 (not including the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir), yielding an average population density of about 182 people per sq km (470 per sq mi). The birth rate in Pakistan in 2001 was 31.21 births for every 1,000 people. Average life expectancy is 61 years for men and 62.3 years for women. About 36 per cent of the people live in urban areas. There were an estimated 1.5 million refugees from Afghanistan in the country in 1994. Principal Cities Although I belong to the the city of Multan which i naturally love and want every one to adore it but Pakistan's largest city and commercial and industrial centre is Karachi, with a population of 9,269,265 (1998 estimate). Other significant urban centres, with their populations, are Lahore, 5,063,499 (1998 estimate), an industrial centre; Faisalabad, 1,977,246 (1998 estimate), a centre of the cotton industry; Rawalpindi, 1,406,214 (1998 estimate), an industrial and military centre; Hyderabad, 1,151,274 (1998 estimate), an agricultural and manufacturing centre; Multan, 1,182,441 (1998 estimate); and Peshawar, 988,005 (1998 estimate), the hub of trade with Afghanistan. Islamabad, 524,500 (1998 estimate), is the federal capital of Pakistan. Pakistan has four provinces�North-West Frontier, Baluchistan, Punjab, and Sind�plus the Federal Capital Territory of Islamabad and federally administered tribal areas. |