The pressure of rapid population growth is visible not only in labor markets but across all public systems.
Population growth and the struggle to build a stable, productive economy in Pakistan are fundamentally a story of how demographic pressures collide wiht limited resources, weak institutions, and low human advancement.
pakistan’s population now exceeds 241 million, growing at a rate still above 2 per cent per year, creating an ongoing mismatch between the pace of population expansion and the country’s ability to provide jobs, services, and infrastructure.
While total economic output (termed Gross National Product) has increased over time, rapid population growth continually erodes per capita gains, leaving people trapped in low-income cycles and limiting the state’s fiscal space to invest in development.
The demographic structure, with a noticeable decline in youth dependency from around 90 in 1990 to 70 in 2018-19, offers a potential demographic dividend. Yet, Pakistan struggles to translate this into economic productivity.
Millions of young people enter the labour market each year, but employment creation remains insufficient, resulting in high unemployment, underemployment, and a labour force dominated by low-skilled, informal work.
According to the Labour Force Survey 2020-21, 16 per cent of graduates remain unemployed, with a larger proportion of women.
Such high unemployment among university graduates, notably women, highlights a dual dilemma-an economy too weak to generate high-skilled jobs, and labour markets still shaped by gender discrimination that restricts women’s entry even where skills exist.
Despite women making up nearly half the population, female labour force participation in Pakistan remains among the lowest in the world, hovering around 22-24 per cent.
High fertility, limited mobility, low education levels, and weak workplace protections all contribute to keeping women out of productive employment.
When women withdraw from the labour market due to childbearing or household responsibilities,the economy loses significant human capital. This reduces household income, lowers national productivity, and further tightens the resource constraints that large families face.
The prospect cost of excluding women from the labour market is enormous; no country has achieved sustained economic growth without fully integrating women into its workforce.
Even more troubling is the fact that 37pc of Pakistani youth, aged between 15 to 24 years, are neither employed nor participating in education or training (NEET), reflecting a significant loss of potential talent.
The pressure on households is equally intense. Large family sizes create resource dilution within the family, where parental time, income, nutrition, and attention are spread thinly across many children. Consequently, each child receives fewer resources, weakening educational attainment, cognitive development, and health outcomes.
This dilution is visible in Pakistan’s alarming levels of child malnutrition, where more than 40pc of children under the age of five are stunted and around 17pc are wasted, contributing to statistics which are some of the highest rates in South Asia.
Stunting represents irreversible cognitive and physical harm, significantly reducing future productivity and earnings potential. A population with such compromised human capital cannot sustain long-term economic growth. Moreover, when children enter the labour force early, often due to economic pressures, pakistan loses another generation of potential skilled workers, perpetuating poverty and limiting economic innovation.The pressure of rapid population growth is visible not only in labour markets but across all public systems. Fiscal resources are stretched thin as the state attempts to provide schools, hospitals, roads, and energy to a growing population.
Per capita public expenditure on health and education remains extremely low. With more children competing for limited school spaces, learning outcomes suffer.
Pakistan already faces one of the world’s highest numbers of out-of-school children, with millions deprived of the opportunity to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. This perpetuates intergenerational poverty and limits the country’s ability to compete in the global economy.
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