Islamabad:
There are over 600,000 mosques and 23,000 factories in Pakistan, while the service sector employs 45% of the total workforce that debunk the myth that the industry is the country’s most important job -creating sector, according to the results of Pakistan’s first economic census.
The economic census also revealed that out of a total of 40 million permanent units in Pakistan there were about 7.2 million employment structures, with 25.4 million people working from 2023. It was the third such detailed report launched by the Ministry of Planning after the population count and agricultural counting, and completed the missing pieces that had hindered information -based financial planning in Pakistan since 1947.
The report showed that Punjab and Karachi Division have the highest concentration of both economic companies and workforce. It emphasized that there were 600,000 mosques in Pakistan and over 36,000 religious seminars, predominantly in Punjab. However, there were only 23,000 factories in addition to 643,000 small production units.
Out of a total workforce of 25.4 million, the largest proportion of the service sector, accounting for 45% or 11.3 million, employs, according to the report. This is followed by the social sector with 30% or 7.6 million workers. The production sector employed only 22% of the total workforce, which is half the number of people working in the service sector.
Punjab has the largest workforce with 13.6 million workers leading in the production and service sector. Sindh comes with 5.7 million workers, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has 4 million workers and Balochistan with a workforce of only 1.4 million.
The report showed that most companies in Pakistan are on small scales that only employ a handful of people, partly because the service sector is considered less job intensive. As many as 7.1 million economic structures use between 1 and 50 people. The number of companies employing between 51 and 250 is only 35,351, while there are only 7,086 units employing more than 250 people.
“Credible data is the backbone of sustainable development as it enables evidence -based planning and efficient decision making,” Iqbal said while talking at the launch ceremony. He emphasized that even artificial intelligence cannot function effectively without reliable data, noting that data in the digital economy is the true growth of fuel driving. The report also showed that out of 7.2 million registered companies that have also been Pakinomist-marked include larger classifications 2.7 million retail stores, 188,000 wholesale stores, 256,000 hotels and 119,000 hospitals. There were also 242,000 schools, 11,568 colleges, 214 universities, 604,000 mosques and 19,645 banks. The country has 29,836 public offices and 10,452 semi-government offices.
The goals of the economic census are to provide a complete and detailed picture of the structure and characteristics of the economy and to collect information about the nature of activity, size, employment and ownership of businesses. Iqbal noted that although neighboring countries have made regular economic census since 1977, Pakistan had lagged behind. An attempt was made in 2003, but failed when activity -related questions were added to the population counting frameworks. India has made seven economic censuses, while Bangladesh, who separated from Pakistan in 1971, has so far made three.
Out of 7.2 million economic structures is approx. 3.2 million companies in the category of wholesale and retail; Repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles. About 696,000 companies are part of the manufacture, while the number of companies involved in education is 326,000. A majority of companies in Pakistan fall under the service sector by 58%, followed by the production sector to 25%and the social sector of 14%. A small part of 3% is classified as “others” indicating limited activity outside these main sectors.
There are a total of 242,616 schools, mostly government -driven and 11,568 colleges, with a slightly higher share in the private sector. The country has 214 universities, 36,331 Madrassas and 119,789 hospitals, where private facilities make up the majority. In general, Punjab leads in both public and private institutions. About 5.6 million households deal with some form of economic activity, and more than half – 51.4% – are involved in animal breeding, making it the most common activity. About 41% of households deal with various other unspecified or various activities. About 3.9%of households are involved in tailoring, while embroidery accounts for 1.4%and poultry breeding 1.3%. Smaller percentages deal with packing or cooking at home, beauty salons and online services, each contributing less than 1%.
Most of the structures of Pakistan are in Punjab, which has 58% of total companies. Sindh has 20%, followed by KP by 15%. Balochistan accounts for 6%, while Islamabad has the smallest share with only 1%. This means that Punjab has the highest number of structures. In contrast, they reflect relatively lower percentages for Balochistan and Islamabad their lower density of physical structures compared to other regions.
Housing structures make up the largest proportion of 79.4% of the total buildings, which indicates a strong focus on housing. KP has the highest proportion of housing structures of 81.6%. Overall, Pakistan’s infrastructure is predominantly housing with less emphasis on mixed use or purely economic buildings. The total number of multi-storey structures in Pakistan is 114,148, of which 64.4% are multi-storey housing, 29% are housing and financial use of mixed use and 6.7% are purely economic structures. Sindh accounts for a majority of housing structures on several floors.
