District Level Poverty in Pakistan

District level poverty in Pakistan reveals an interesting situation, at one hand it validates the commonly held belief of Punjab being the richest while Baluchistan being the poorest of the four provinces. But then it highlights exceptions, within each province, that are different from the rest. Some districts in the North of Baluchistan are better off from the rest in the province, while the south of Punjab is much worse off than the North.

The data is from a paper by Mr. Haroon Jamal, titled “Income Poverty at District Level: An application of small area estimation technique” publised by the SPDC in 2007, its downloadable from here: http://www.spdc.org.pk/pubs/rr/rr70.pdf

The paper uses data from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) and the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) for 2004-05. Data on FATA, FANA, and Azad Kashmir was not available in the surveys. Furthermore, survey wasnt carried out in Dera Bugti and Kohlu due to security reason.

This is the district by district situation, where areas in red represent higher percentage of people predicted to live below the poverty line.

 

In a total of 98 districts, the least poor district was Karachi at 9.15% while the highest percentage of people below the poverty line were predicted to be in Chaghi at 76.1%.

After Karachi the next district in Sindh with the lowest poverty rate was Hyderabad at the 18th position.

In terms of ranking, after Karachi the next 15 districts are from Punjab, the top three are Rawalpindi, Lahore and Jhelum. The top three districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur. For Baluchistan the top three are Quetta, Ziarat and Kalat, while for Sindh they are Karachi, Hyderabad and Sanghar.

For Punjab the poorest districts are Muzaffargarh, Rajan Pur and D.G. Khan. For Sindh they are Shikarpur, Thatha, and Larkana. For Baluchistan: Chaghi, Lasbela and Zhob, while for Pakhtunkhwa: Upper Dir, Shangla and Lakki Marwat

Amongst provincial capitals, Karachi is at number 1, while Lahore is number 3, Quetta comes at number 41, while Peshawar has the highest incidence of poverty at number 50.

Following is a ranking of all the districts.

Prov. Name	District Name	Percentage of People below Poverty Line	Rank
Sindh	Karachi	9.15	1
Punjab	Rawalpindi	11.32	2
Punjab	Lahore	11.6	3
Punjab	Jhelum	12.32	4
Punjab	Gujrat	12.72	5
Punjab	Sialkot	13.96	6
Punjab	Attock	14.11	7
Punjab	Mandi Bahauddin	17.33	8
Punjab	Chakwal	18.09	9
Punjab	Bhakkar	18.21	10
Punjab	Toba Tek Singh	18.95	11
Punjab	Gujranwala	19.04	12
Punjab	Narowal	19.3	13
Punjab	Faisalabad	19.84	14
Pukhtunkhwa	Mansehra	20.74	15
Pukhtunkhwa	Abbottabad	21.17	16
Punjab	Sahiwal	21.66	17
Sindh	Hyderabad	23.13	18
Punjab	Hafizabad	24.04	19
Punjab	Khushab	24.37	20
Sindh	Sanghar	24.67	21
Sindh	Sukkur	24.96	22
Punjab	Sargodha	25.66	23
Punjab	Sheikhupura	26.2	24
Pukhtunkhwa	Haripur	27.25	25
Pukhtunkhwa	Swat	27.3	26
Sindh	Khairpur	27.41	27
Pukhtunkhwa	Nowshera	27.98	28
Punjab	Kasur	28.18	29
Pukhtunkhwa	Kohat	28.53	30
Sindh	Mirpur Khas	28.53	31
Sindh	Tharparkar	28.92	32
Pukhtunkhwa	Batagram	29.22	33
Punjab	Okara	29.98	34
Punjab	Vehari	30.03	35
Punjab	Jhang	32.25	36
Punjab	Bahawalnagar	32.45	37
Sindh	Nawabshah	32.68	38
Sindh	Naushahro Feroze	33.11	39
Pukhtunkhwa	Bannu	33.2	40
Baluchistan	Quetta	34.15	41
Sindh	Jacobabad	34.16	42
Pukhtunkhwa	Lower Dir	34.62	43
Pukhtunkhwa	D. I. Khan	34.63	44
Sindh	Badin	34.83	45
Pukhtunkhwa	Tank	34.87	46
Punjab	Mianwali	35.38	47
Pukhtunkhwa	Kohistan	35.56	48
Sindh	Dadu	36.44	49
Pukhtunkhwa	Peshawar	36.51	50
Punjab	Pakpattan	36.7	51
Pukhtunkhwa	Karak	36.93	52
Punjab	Multan	38.4	53
Punjab	Khanewal	38.84	54
Pukhtunkhwa	Malakand PA	39.19	55
Punjab	Bahawalpur	39.46	56
Pukhtunkhwa	Swabi	39.64	57
Sindh	Ghotki	40.8	58
Pukhtunkhwa	Charsadda	40.83	59
Punjab	Leiah	40.86	60
Pukhtunkhwa	Chitral	40.96	61
Baluchistan	Ziarat	41.29	62
Baluchistan	Kalat	41.89	63
Baluchistan	Mastung	42.34	64
Pukhtunkhwa	Mardan	42.46	65
Pukhtunkhwa	Hangu	43.2	66
Sindh	Larkana	43.33	67
Baluchistan	Jaffarabad	44.14	68
Pukhtunkhwa	Buner	45.38	69
Baluchistan	Bolan	45.56	70
Punjab	Rahim Yar Khan	45.87	71
Pukhtunkhwa	Lakki Marwat	46.49	72
Sindh	Thatta	46.87	73
Baluchistan	Gwadar	47.55	74
Punjab	Lodhran	48.37	75
Baluchistan	Panjgur	49.68	76
Pukhtunkhwa	Shangla	50.79	77
Baluchistan	Khuzdar	50.96	78
Punjab	D. G. Khan	51.01	79
Sindh	Shikarpur	51.03	80
Baluchistan	Loralai	52.1	81
Baluchistan	Barkhan	52.84	82
Baluchistan	Jhal Magsi	53.42	83
Punjab	Rajanpur	54.16	84
Baluchistan	Musakhel	54.26	85
Baluchistan	Kech	54.4	86
Pukhtunkhwa	Upper Dir	54.53	87
Baluchistan	Kharan	55.52	88
Baluchistan	Sibi	55.81	89
Punjab	Muzaffargarh	56.29	90
Baluchistan	Nasirabad	57.27	91
Baluchistan	Killa Abdullah	58.82	92
Baluchistan	Killa Saifullah	60.66	93
Baluchistan	Awaran	61.54	94
Baluchistan	Pishin	62.36	95
Baluchistan	Zhob	65.99	96
Baluchistan	Lasbela	66.4	97
Baluchistan	Chagai	76.91	98
Baluchistan	Dera Bugti	Survey Not Conducted
Baluchistan	Kohlu	Survey Not Conducted