Cambridge O Level Pakistan Studies: Population and Employment (2059)

Population and employment is Section 8, the last section of Paper 2 in Cambridge O Level Pakistan Studies 2059. It covers how fast Pakistan’s population is growing and why, what its population pyramid shows, why people move, how unevenly people are spread across the provinces, and how the workforce is employed. Questions lean heavily on data, so expect pyramids, birth- and death-rate graphs and density tables, then a part (d) judgement on solutions.

Where does Section 8 fit in 2059 Paper 2?

Three 25-mark questions are answered from five in 1 hour 30 minutes, each built on resources with part (d) testing analysis. Section 8 ties the paper together: land and climate (Section 1) explain where people live; agriculture, industry and services (Sections 4, 5 and 7) explain where they work; and every resource in Sections 2 and 3 is under pressure from population growth.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE O LEVEL PAKISTAN STUDIES 2059, 2026 — PAPER 2, SECTION 8: POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT

• 8(a) Structure and growth: changing age and sex structures shown by Pakistan’s population pyramids; effects of present and projected structures on the economy and development; interpret graphs and statistics of birth rates, death rates and natural increase, and identify trends; social, educational, economic and political factors in growth; problems caused by growth, its sustainability, and possible solutions
• 8(b) Movements of population: push and pull causes of rural–urban migration, seasonal migration, emigration and immigration (including refugees); effects including shanty developments, tent cities and rural depopulation; measures to solve the problems, such as self-help schemes and clean water and other services, including adverse outcomes such as poor housing
• 8(c) Distribution and density: the difference between distribution and density; variations between and within the provinces, including the Northern Area; physical, economic, social and political factors behind them
• 8(d) Employment: primary, secondary and tertiary occupations; proportions of the workforce in each and how they are changing; causes and problems of rural and urban unemployment and underemployment; availability of skilled and manual labour; unemployment and underemployment as influences on GNP and GDP; the importance of literacy, education and training for males and females in rural and urban areas

How fast has Pakistan’s population grown?

Census counts from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics:

Census	Population (millions, approx.)
1951	34
1981	84
1998	132
2017	208
2023	241.5

The 2023 census put average annual growth between 2017 and 2023 at about 2.55%, one of the fastest rates in Asia. Natural increase is the birth rate minus the death rate. The death rate fell steeply after independence as vaccination, antibiotics and clean water spread, while the birth rate fell much more slowly, so the gap between them, and therefore growth, stayed wide. The total fertility rate was about 3.6 children per woman in the 2017–18 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, still well above the replacement level of about 2.1.

What does Pakistan’s population pyramid show?

• Broad base: roughly a third or more of people are under 15, from high past birth rates.
• Narrowing slightly at the very bottom in recent decades, as birth rates begin to fall.
• Bulge moving up into the 15–29 age groups: a very large youth population entering work.
• Narrow top: few people over 65, because of lower life expectancy in the past.
• Sex structure: slightly more males than females overall in census counts.

Effects now: heavy demand for schools, vaccinations and child health; a high dependency ratio; millions of young people reaching working age each year. Projected effects: a large working-age population can be a “demographic dividend” if it is educated and employed, boosting output and savings, or a source of unemployment and unrest if jobs are not created. Over time, the elderly share will grow, raising demand for pensions and care.

Why does population keep growing?

Factor	Example
Social	Early marriage, especially in rural areas; preference for sons; joint families that support childrearing
Educational	Low female literacy and schooling, linked to earlier marriage and less use of family planning
Economic	Children work on farms and in the informal sector and support parents in old age, as there are few pensions
Political	Family planning has had inconsistent funding and priority; population policy is shared between federal and provincial governments since 2010
Medical	Falling infant and child death rates without an equal fall in births

Problems for development: pressure on food, water and housing; overcrowded schools and hospitals; urban sprawl and traffic; pollution and deforestation; too few jobs for new workers. Solutions to evaluate: girls’ education, accessible family planning through lady health workers and clinics, better child health so parents expect children to survive, old-age security, and religious leaders’ support for birth spacing. Each needs money and time, and attitudes change slowly.

Why do people migrate, and with what effects?

Type	Push	Pull	Pakistani example
Rural–urban	Landlessness, low farm wages, floods and drought, few schools or clinics	Factory, construction and service jobs; education; health care	Migrants from southern Punjab and interior Sindh to Karachi and Lahore
Seasonal	No farm work in the slack season; winter snow in the mountains; drought in Thar	Wheat harvest and cotton picking on the plains; winter jobs in cities	Thari families moving to irrigated barrage areas in dry years
Emigration	Unemployment, low pay, inflation	High wages in the Gulf, the UK and Europe	More than 800,000 workers registered to go abroad in 2023, mostly to Saudi Arabia and the UAE
Immigration and refugees	War and persecution in neighbouring countries	Safety, family and ethnic links	Afghan refugees since 1979; repatriation of undocumented Afghans from late 2023

Effects in cities: growth of katchi abadis (unplanned settlements) on hillsides, railway land and riverbanks, often without water, drainage, power or legal title; congestion and pollution. Tent cities: set up for refugees and after disasters such as the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 and 2022 floods, when the 2022 floods affected around 33 million people. Rural areas: loss of young men, more work for women and the elderly, but remittances that pay for houses, schooling and farm inputs.

Measures and their limits: self-help housing such as the incremental “Khuda ki Basti” schemes near Hyderabad, where poor families got plots cheaply and built in stages; community sanitation schemes; regularising katchi abadis and supplying standpipes, clean water, drains and electricity. Adverse outcomes: upgrading can attract more migrants, while some schemes have left people in poor-quality, overcrowded housing far from jobs.

How is population distributed, and how dense is it?

Distribution is the pattern of where people live; density is how many people live per square kilometre. Approximate 2023 census figures:

Province / area	Population (millions)	Density (people per km², approx.)
Punjab	127.7	620
Sindh	55.7	395
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	40.9	400
Balochistan	14.9	43
Islamabad Capital Territory	2.4	2,600

Within provinces: in Punjab, densities are highest in the north-east (Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad) and lowest in the Cholistan and Thal deserts; in Sindh, Karachi holds over a third of the province’s people while Thar and the Kirthar hills are sparse; in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Peshawar valley is dense and Chitral is sparse; in Balochistan, people cluster in Quetta and the Naseerabad plain. In Gilgit-Baltistan (the Northern Area), settlement is confined to narrow valley floors along the Indus, Gilgit and Hunza rivers.

Factors: physical (flat fertile plains and water versus mountains, deserts, cold and aridity); economic (irrigated farming, industry, ports, jobs); social (services, schools, family networks); political (capital-city functions in Islamabad, government investment, security conditions).

How is the workforce employed?

The Labour Force Survey 2020–21 put roughly 37% of employed people in agriculture (37.4%), 25% in industry (25.4%) and 37% in services (37.2%). The primary share is falling slowly as mechanisation spreads and young people move to cities; tertiary jobs (retail, transport, education, health, IT) are growing fastest.

• Unemployment means having no work while seeking it; underemployment means working fewer hours or at lower productivity than one could, such as a rickshaw driver with few fares or a farm labourer idle between harvests. Rural causes: seasonal farm work, mechanisation, small holdings; urban causes: too few factory jobs for migrants, power shortages closing industry, a mismatch between skills and jobs.
• Effects on GNP and GDP: idle or under-used workers produce less, so national output and tax revenue are lower than they could be.
• Skilled versus manual labour: manual labour is plentiful, but doctors, engineers, managers and technicians are scarce, partly because many emigrate.
• Education: literacy (age 10+) was about 61% in the 2023 census, lower for women and in rural areas. Female education, technical training and rural schooling raise productivity, lower fertility and widen the skilled workforce.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between distribution and density? Distribution is the pattern of where people live across an area; density is the number of people per square kilometre. Balochistan has a sparse distribution and the lowest density.

What is a demographic dividend? The boost to growth that can happen when a large share of the population is of working age and is educated and employed. Without jobs, the same bulge becomes a problem.

Why does underemployment matter as much as unemployment? Underemployed people earn too little and produce less than they could, so poverty persists and GDP is lower, even though they are counted as working.

What is a katchi abadi? An unplanned, often unauthorised settlement in a Pakistani city, usually with poor housing and few services such as clean water and drainage.

Related resources

• Population and Employment revision notes
• Population and Employment practice questions
• Industrial Development study guide
• The Land of Pakistan study guide

Official syllabus

Cambridge Assessment International Education, Cambridge O Level Pakistan Studies 2059 syllabus for examination in 2026, Paper 2 Section 8 Population and employment: https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/697282-2026-syllabus.pdf (checked 2026-11-08). Population figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics censuses (2023 and earlier) and Labour Force Survey 2020–21; all approximate.