Pakistan

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Results in this brief are from an analysis of the 2017-2018 Demographic and Health Survey. Information on methodology is in the main text of the report and in the method briefs. Additional results are available in results tables on the DDI website.

Share of Adults with Functional Difficulties

In Pakistan, the share of adults aged 15 and older with any functional difficulty stands at 25%. As shown in Table 1, it varies from a low of 14.9% in Balochistan to a high of 28.7% in Islamabad Capital Territory. In all regions, seeing is the most common type of functional difficulty; communication is the least common.

Table 1: Pakistan: Share of Adults with functional difficulties at the regional level (%)

Region Any Seeing Hearing Mobility Cognition Self-Care Communication
Azad Jammu and Kashmir 30.9 16.2 6.6 18.4 11.4 4.6 2.4
Balochistan 14.9 9.7 2.3 5.5 2.8 2.3 1.0
Federally Administered Tribal Areas 28.1 11.4 5.0 12.1 13.0 3.8 1.6
Gilgit Baltistan 26.5 11.4 8.7 15.0 7.7 5.3 3.9
Islamabad Capital Territory 28.7 15.4 4.9 15.4 9.6 4.9 2.3
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 24.4 14.6 4.4 11.0 8.7 4.0 2.4
Punjab 26.5 14.6 4.5 14.6 8.1 3.9 2.1
Sindh 19.9 10.8 3.7 10.2 6.2 3.3 2.0
National 25.0 13.6 4.8 13.4 8.0 3.9 2.2

Notes: ‘Any’ is the share of adults with any level of difficulty (some difficulty,  a lot of difficulty or unable to do in one or more functional domains. For instance, ‘Seeing’ is the share of adults with difficulty in seeing of any level. Shares for the six domains do not add up to the share of any difficulty as some individuals may have functional difficulties in more than one domain. Source: Own calculations based on Pakistan DHS data.

Multidimensional Poverty

Multidimensional poverty captures an individual’s experience of multiple deprivations (e.g. low educational attainment, having inadequate living conditions). In Pakistan, the shares of persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty and some difficulty who are multidimensionally poor stands at 74.7% and 61.2%, respectively. This is higher than that of persons with no difficulty at 45.3%.

Thus, there is a disability gap in multidimensional poverty between persons with at least a lot of difficulty and no difficulty (29.4 percentage points) and between persons with some difficulty and no difficulty (15.9 percentage points). In other words, persons in Pakistan with functional difficulties more frequently experience multiple deprivations than those with no difficulties. As illustrated in Figure 1/Table 2, multidimensional poverty is common in all regions among adults with functional difficulties.

Figure 1: Pakistan: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Figure1a: Adults with no difficulty

Figure 1a maps the share of adults with no difficulty at the regional level in Pakistan

Figure 1b: Adults with some difficulty

Figure 1b maps the share of adults with some difficulty at the regional level in Pakistan

Figure 1c: Adults with at least a lot of difficulty

Figure 1c maps the share of adults with at least a lot of difficulty at the regional level in Pakistan

Legend of Figure 1 This is the legend for different categories of the multidimensional poverty headcount from a low of under 29.9% to a high of 90% and above.

Source: Own calculations based on Pakistan DHS data (2017-2018). The notes of Table 1 apply.

 

Table 2 (Supporting Figure 1): Pakistan: Multidimensional poverty headcount among adults with no, some and at least a lot of difficulty (%)

Region No difficulty Some difficulty At least a lot of difficulty
Azad Jammu and Kashmir 36.4 59.2 69.8
Balochistan 69.8 80.2 86.2
Federally Administered Tribal Areas 82.6 89.8 96.7
Gilgit Baltistan 40.8 69.1 86.8
Islamabad Capital Territory 17.8 32.9 53.8
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 57.4 72.2 86.9
Punjab 35.1 55.9 71.0
Sindh 52.1 64.3 73.8
National 44.1 61.5 74.9