MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Pakistan
Index
In 1992 some 35 million Pakistanis, or about 30 percent
of
the population, were unable to afford nutritionally
adequate food
or to afford any nonfood items at all. Of these, 24.3
million
lived in rural areas, where they constituted 29 percent of
the
population. Urban areas, with one-third of the national
population, had a poverty rate of 26 percent.
Between 1985 and 1991, about 85 percent of rural
residents
and 100 percent of urban dwellers had access to some kind
of
Western or biomedical health care; but 12.9 million people
had no
access to health services. Only 45 percent of rural people
had
safe water as compared with 80 percent of urbanites,
leaving 55
million without potable water. Also in the same period,
only 10
percent of rural residents had access to modern sanitation
while
55 percent of city residents did; a total of 94.9 million
people
hence were without sanitary facilities.
In the early 1990s, the leading causes of death
remained
gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, congenital
abnormalities, tuberculosis, malaria, and typhoid.
Gastrointestinal, parasitic, and respiratory ailments, as
well as
malnutrition, contributed substantially to morbidity. The
incidence of communicable childhood diseases was high;
measles,
diphtheria, and pertussis took a substantial toll among
children
under five. Although the urban poor also suffered from
these
diseases, those in rural areas were the principal victims.
Despite these discouraging facts, there has been
significant
improvement in some health indicators, even though the
population
grew by 130 percent between 1955 and 1960 and between 1985
and
1990, and increasing from 50.0 million in 1960 to 123.4
million
in 1993. For example, in 1960 only 25 percent of the
population
had purportedly safe water (compared with 56 percent in
1992). In
addition, average life expectancy at birth was 43.1 years
in
1960; in 1992 it had reached 58.3 years.
Data as of April 1994
|
|