Pakistan will conduct its first population census in two decades next year, the government announced on Friday, noting that military offensives against Islamist rebels had made multiple parts of the country safe enough to resume such counts.
Pakistan last surveyed its population in 1998. No further census was conducted after that because large swathes of territory fell to militants linked to Al-Qaeda and its Taliban ally, neither of which cooperated with such efforts.
But the insurgents were chased from the tribal regions on the Afghan border and parts of south-western province of Baluchistan in a series of offensive starting in 2014.
The government decided to carry out a fresh census from March next year to determine the exact size of the population, the prime minister's office said.
The military would provide security for the countrywide exercise, which is set to be conducted in two phases, the premier's office said.
Pakistan's population was 132mn in 1998. Various estimates put it between 180mn and 200mn now, but those are not exact counts, the national statistics department says.
Most births remain unregistered and authorities do not have a mechanism to maintain a population database in remote areas.
This forces the government to take key planning and budgeting decisions based on assumptions.
