Demographic potential

At a recent event in the federal capital, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar expressed the incumbent government’s commitment to exploring Pakistan’s demographic potential and reaping its ‘immense’ dividends in a bid to make the country a vibrant economy. The minister believes that investing in the country’s demographic potential will enhance opportunities in the job market, generate revenues and put the country on path of development and prosperity. The minister has rightly pointed out that countries like Indonesia, Japan, China and India have taken advantage of their demographic potential but “unfortunately, Pakistan – despite having a big potential – has not utilised it”.

Different from population potential – which concerns the total number of persons living within a certain geographical boundary – demographic potential suggests the demographic power of a nation and its ability to provide future population growth. According to a research study, demographic potential is “an aggregate index related to ultimate posterity of the population” and is determined by a variety of factors. In one of the ways, “demographic potential is a set of knowledge, skills, abilities and motivations” of a person or persons that have economic influence and value. It increases as a result of investment like education, reproduction, and migration, and decreases as a result of wear, with time.

The concept of demographic potential is not aimed at measuring actual population perspectives, but to gauge the existing weight of the population and its potential ability to grow. This concept has been used by several countries of the world to project future tendencies on the basis of the examination of past trends. Data comes at the heart of the whole concept if a government seeks to gauge and realise the demographic potential of a nation. There is, thus, the need for us to first work on data collection.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2020.

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