Open AccessPopulation Size and Growth in Pakistan Based on Early Reports of 1972 Census
Author(s) -
Karol J. Krótki,
Khalida Parveen
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v15i3pp.290-318
Subject(s) - census , demography , population , geography , population growth , drop out , demographic analysis , population size , demographic economics , sociology , economics
Census reports are the primary source of information onpopulation chara¬cteristics. Fundamental among these characteristics arepopulation size and growth, but census reports are often used toevaluate other features of a popu¬lation such as reliability of agereporting, extent of literacy, adequacy of occupational reporting, andlevel and pattern of unemployment. In this paper, we take a preliminarylook at the 1972 Census of Pakistan in order to deter¬mine its overallsuitability as a source of information on population of the country. Thequality of census data depends not only on the technical capacity of thestatistical arm of the government, but on the characteristics of thesociety as well. For example, even the advanced statistical and surveytechnology available in the United States is inadequate to deal with themore volatile nature of society. Near completeness of coverage isachieved only in a few countries such as Holland, Denmark andSwitzerland, with high degrees of social cohesion1 and where populationcensuses are kept in close administrative check.