Pakistan’s population will swell to 349 million by year 2050, making it the fourth most populated country in the world, cautions a Washington-based population monitoring group.
| Breeding like little Islamic rabbits, are they? |
The Bureau projects India will become the world’s most populated country with 1,628 million people by 2050, tailed closely by China with 1,394 million. The US will increase its population from the existing 292 million to 422 in the next 43 years, while Indonesia, with the current population of 220 million, will grow by 94 million during the same period. The Bureau’s 2003 world population data sheet puts Pakistan’s existing population at 149 million, the sixth largest in the world. According to the Pakistani government, the country was seventh population-wise globally in 2001 with 142.5 million people.
| And most of them can be described as "loopy." |
An exceptionally high population growth already has its impacts on the country in the form of rampant poverty in the absence of adequate policy responses to improve the situation.
| Not to worry. They have lots of madrassahs... |
The population growth has caused an eight-time increase in the unemployment ratio during the last 30 years. With almost one third of the population living in abject poverty, 54 million people do not have access to safe drinking water; 55 million people are living in one-room houses; 17 million are the residents of Katchi Abadis in urban areas; 74 million are living without sanitation facilities; and 53.5 million are illiterates. The population explosion has led to the shortage of educational facilities, health services, housing units, food, living space, arable land and clean water. |