Census results: Just over 10,000, transgender people only 0.005% of Pakistan's population

74 per cent of the country's transgender population resides in urban areas

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's transgender population, according to the census carried out earlier this year, stands at 10,418 — 0.005 percent of the total population of over 207 million.

This was for the first time in the country’s history that the transgender community was counted separately by enumerators.

As per the provisional summary of the results of the 6th Population and Housing Census released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday, the country’s male and female population stands at 106 million and 101 million respectively.

The statistics show that 74 per cent of the transgender population resides in urban areas as opposed to the majority of the overall population that lives in the rural parts of the country.



Further breakdown reveals that 6,709 transgender people live in Punjab; 2,527 in Sindh, 913 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), 133 in Islamabad, 109 in Balochistan and 27 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

In comparison with its overall population, Sindh has the highest percentage of transgender people, followed by Islamabad, Punjab, K-P, FATA, and Balochistan.

PBS census official Habibullah Khan said there was no further breakdown of the transgender population in other categories.

"The only breakdown of the transgender people's figures is in provinces and rural-urban areas," he added.



Although some community members had claimed a much higher number, All Pakistan Shemale Association President Almas Boby said the census figure was more closer to reality.

“I think this is the correct figure. Transgender people are not in millions as some of us had claimed,” she added.

Almas said no transgender person had complained about being missed during the counting or the enumerators filling in the data incorrectly. "That gives credibility to the census results."

She welcomed the government's move to compile separate population figures of the transgender people and urged it to launch welfare programmes for the community.