Published: 04:19 PM, 03 September 2025 Last Update: 04:32 PM, 03 September 2025
Pakistan’s Economic Census Exposes Decades of Neglect
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After nearly eight decades of independence, Pakistan has finally conducted its first-ever Economic Census, a long-overdue initiative led by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and executed by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). This landmark effort mapped over 40 million buildings across the country, identifying 7.2 million as economic establishments. The findings, released by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, offer a sobering reflection of the country’s economic and social landscape, revealing the scale of informal enterprise bringing into stark revelation the alarming neglect of essential public infrastructure.
The census uncovered 7.143 million businesses employing 25.344 million people. Yet, only 250,000 of these are formally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, underscoring the vast informal economy that powers the nation. Micro and small enterprises dominate the business ecosystem, with 95% of establishments employing fewer than ten people. Contrary to popular belief, industry is not the largest job creator in Pakistan, rather services and small-scale retail are. The services sector alone accounts for nearly 58% of the workforce, while production and manufacturing lag far behind.
This data shatters long-held myths about Pakistan’s economic structure. The country is overwhelmingly driven by industrial giants or large corporations but largely by micro-enterprises and informal labour. Within the wholesale and retail sector alone, 2.9 million businesses were recorded, including 2.7 million retail shops, 188,000 wholesale shops, and 825,000 service shops. The manufacturing sector comprises just 23,000 factories and 643,000 production units, an astonishingly low figure for a country of 250 million people.
Yet the economic revelations are only part of the story. The census also exposed a deeply troubling picture of Pakistan’s social infrastructure. The country has more mosques than schools, hospitals, or factories, a stark reflection of its skewed developmental priorities. There are over 600,000 mosques and 36,000 religious seminaries, compared to just 269,000 schools and 119,000 hospitals. This imbalance reflects deeper systemic issues that hinder educational access, strain healthcare services, and limit the country’s economic potential.
The educational landscape is particularly dire. Nationwide, there are only 11,568 colleges and 214 universities, woefully insufficient for a population of this scale. The healthcare sector fares no better, with just one hospital available for every 2,083 people. In a country grappling with widespread poverty, malnutrition, and disease, such figures point to a systemic failure in public service delivery.
Provincial disparities further compound the crisis. Punjab, the most populous province, has the largest share of businesses and workforce, yet still suffers from inadequate educational and medical infrastructure. With 128 million residents, Punjab has only 64,821 hospitals and 123,000 schools. Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Islamabad show similar patterns of underdevelopment, with hospitals and schools lagging far behind religious institutions in number. For instance, Balochistan, with over 14,000 schools, has just 5,911 hospitals and 486 colleges, figures that reflect chronic underinvestment.
The census also highlighted the vibrancy of home-based economic activities, with 10.9 million individuals engaged in sectors like livestock rearing, tailoring, food packaging, and online services. While this reflects entrepreneurial resilience, it also underscores the lack of formal employment opportunities and institutional support. Among these, 5.6 million people rear livestock, 419,000 are involved in clothing stitching, and 93,000 offer online services, indicating a population that is industrious but underserved.
Critics have pointed to inconsistencies in the data, most notably, the workforce figure of 25 million, which contradicts the World Bank’s 2017 estimate of 56 million. such discrepancies merit scrutiny. Meanwhile the broader narrative is that Pakistan’s economy is overwhelmingly small-scale, service-sector driven, and regionally uneven. The country’s infrastructure, educational, medical, and industrial, is woefully inadequate for its population size and aspirations.
The rapid expansion of religious seminaries since the Zia era has influenced the country's educational landscape, affected employment patterns, and contributed to shifts in its socio-political environment. The quantification of these institutions for the first time raises urgent questions about their role and relevance in a modern economy. As one commentator noted, “Mosques consume money, while factories generate money.” The imbalance between spiritual and secular institutions reflects a national ethos where belief is often prioritized over reason and development.
As Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal pointed out, neighboring countries have conducted multiple economic censuses over the decades. Pakistan’s prolonged inaction reflects a deep-rooted dysfunction within its systems that continues to obstruct meaningful development.
The census has finally laid bare the deficiencies that have long plagued the nation. Whether this data will catalyze reform or be buried under political inertia remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that Pakistan stands at a crossroads and must decide whether to address its systemic neglect or continue along a path defined by imbalance and underdevelopment. (By, Journalist Delwar Hossain & the views are personal.)
