Pakistan
population: 2023 census (1 Mar 2023) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 14 metros tracked
🗺️ Geography13 of 14 metros
Pakistan metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.
Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.
🏙️ 14 tracked metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions
7 entries listed under Pakistan across 3 types. Select any to see its metros and footprint.
Administrative Areas (2)
Capital Territories (1)
📋 At a glance
- Official languages
- Urdu, English
- Currency
- Pakistani rupee (₨)
- Government
- Parliamentary republic
- Legislature
- Parliament of Pakistan
- Constitution
- 1973, 22 amendment events since
- Demonym
- Pakistani
- Time zone
- UTC+05:00
- Driving side
- Left
- Calling code
- +92
- Internet TLD
- .pk
- ISO 3166
- PK
- Established
- 1947
- Highest point
- K2 (8,611 m (28,251 ft))
- National anthem
- Qaumi Taranah
Facts via Wikidata.
🗣️ Languages of Pakistan
Urdu first; 7 languages share the country; 2 official.
| Language | Share | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urdu | 95% | Official | CLDR, country |
| Eastern Panjabi | 70% | None | CLDR, country |
| English | 50% | Official | CLDR, country |
| Western Panjabi | 40% | None | CLDR, country |
| Pashto | 16% | None | CLDR, country |
| Sindhi | 15% | None | CLDR, country |
Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.
- English reach
- 50%
- Tier 3 country
- Effective languages
- 1.0
- Official-language gap
- 5%
- Urdu is spoken by 95%
📰 In the news6 stories
AP · 26 Oct 2026
Pakistan arrests man in US postage fraud schemeProsecutors say counterfeit postage labels sold for $2 each cost USPS more than $126 million.
The Guardian · 19 Oct 2026
Imran Khan's party decries 'coup' after Pakistan suspends provincial governmentPakistan declared an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and detained the PTI-led provincial government.
AP · 5 Oct 2026
Imran Khan supporters rally for his releaseMore than 5,000 people marched in Islamabad for Imran Khan's release after talks between his party and the government failed.
BBC · 28 Sept 2026
Pakistan arrests Imran Khan's sister Aleema KhanumAuthorities ordered Khanum detained for 30 days ahead of demonstrations supporting the jailed former prime minister, deploying thousands of police and barricading Islamabad.
BBC News · 21 Sept 2026
Pakistan orders Afghan medical students to leaveAbout 1,000 students face removal, and for the women among them returning to Afghanistan would end their medical careers.
Al Jazeera · 20 Sept 2026
Bomb attack at Pakistan mosque kills at least 31 peopleA suicide bomber drove a bomb-laden car into a mosque at a police headquarters in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 18, and gunmen then tried to storm the compound.
💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.
Alliances & Organisations4 full memberships
Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer
🏛️ Leadership History38 leaders · click to expand
is an editorial flag: associated with atrocities against civilians, systemic subversion of the constitutional order, or a criminal conviction (political persecutions and annulled convictions excluded). It is a curated list, not a measurement, so a name without one has not been cleared of anything. Hover a badge for the reason on file.
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.
⚔️ Wars and conflicts7 interstate wars · click to expand
| Conflict | Years | Against | Combat deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan war | 2026–present | Afghanistan | 100–457 |
| 2025 India–Pakistan conflict | 2025 | India | 83–210 |
| Kargil War | 1999 | India | 884–5,600 |
| Soviet–Afghan War● | 1979–1989 | Soviet Union,Afghanistan | 600,000–2,000,000 |
| Indo-Pakistani War of 1971● | 1971 | India | 11,500–12,843 |
| Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 | 1965 | India | 6,800–13,459 |
| Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 | 1947–1949 | India | 2,604–7,500 |
Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”
👥 Population over time
Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.
👥 To 2100
The UN’s probabilistic projection for Pakistan: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.
What drives it
Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.
Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.
💰 Billionaires1 · $2.5B combined · click to expand
Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.
🏆 National Teams
Pakistan on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.
National Teams Champions
Every major championship won by Pakistan's national teams, newest first. 2 in total.
| Year | Date | Champion | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2009-06-21 | Pakistan | T20 World Cup |
| 1992 | 1992-03-25 | Pakistan | Cricket World Cup |