From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Pakistan the fifth-largest population in the world as every year the country’s population is increasing by 2.4% and annually, 11,000 mothers lose their lives during childbirth.
The statistics are released by the Population Council on World Population Day.
It said the population of Pakistan was growing faster than all Asian countries.
Every year in Pakistan, 11,000 mothers die during childbirth and 62 out of every 1,000 children die before they become one of age, the council highlighted.
On an average, every mother in Pakistan was giving birth to four children, while 40 per cent of the children suffer from malnutrition and 29 per cent were underweight, the re-port said.
It further added that 18 percent of all the children under five years of age were not growing, the council said in the report, adding Pakistan would need more than 100 mil-lion jobs and 20 million houses by 2040.
The council further said that due to an increase in the population, Pakistan is facing a severe water shortage.
It was informed that Pakistan would require 85,000 more primary schools by 2040 and one out of every three children in Pakistan was not going to school.
While the population of Pakistan is growing rapidly, India and Bangladesh have man-aged to control it.
The council said only 34 out of 100 couples in Pakistan used contraceptives, while on an average, every married couple in Pakistan had one unplanned child.
Moreover, 12 per cent of the people aged 20 to 24 are jobless in Pakistan.
