Islamabad having highest rise in urban population: WB

ISLAMABAD: The urban population in top 25 cities of Pakistan has mounted up to 73 percent during the last ten years, whereas the urbanisation of these cities has been projected even with more pace during next 15 years. The ratio of urbanisation of medium sized cities is much higher than the mega cities, shows the World Urban Population report of World Bank (WB).
According to the WB data of urban population of the major cities of the world in which 25 major cities of Pakistan have been included, Islamabad is the only city which has faced a rapid increase in its population during the last ten years.
Islamabad with 73 percent increase in population during last ten years is on the top. Whereas Bahawalpur which faced 59 percent increase in its urban population is on second position on the list. Larkana with 57 percent increase is on the third position; Quetta with 48 percent on number 4 and Sheikhupura with 46 percent increase on number 5.
Although the number of people moved to mega cities like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar are much higher than the other cities, the percentage is much lower than the other cities. For example in 2005, according to the data the total population of Karachi was 11.88 million and in 2015 it is 16.61 million which means 4.7 million people have migrated to Karachi during last ten years. However this is 39 percent increase in the total population. Similarly Rawalpindi has faced 39.3 percent increase, Lahore 36.8 percent and Peshawar has faced 38.2 percent increase in their urban population.
In 2005, the total population of Islamabad was 787508, in 2010 it reached 1.03 million and in 2015 the total population is 1.36 million. Hence from 2005 to 2015 the total urban population increase of Islamabad has been calculated to 73 percent which is the highest ratio as compared to any other city in Pakistan.
Similarly, if we count the total percentage of difference of population from 2005 to 2015, Sialkot is the city which embraced lowest percentage of urban population by only 20 percent. Jhang city had 26 percent increase, Hyderabad 28.1 percent, Kasur 29.1 and Sargodha 29.6 percent. These cities are at the bottom of the chart.
Following the same pattern, the report has also predicted the projected population of next 15 years till 2030. According to these predictions except for Islamabad where the increase in urban population would dropped from 73 percent to 66 percent, every city would face significant increase in their urban population. The ratio of increase in urban population of Bahalpur has been projected by 62 percent, Larkana by 61 percent, Quetta by 56 percent and Sheikhupura by 57 percent.
The report further projects that in 2030 Sialkot would face 45.6 percent increase in its urban population but it still is on bottom of the list of these 25 cities list.