The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has revealed that the average age of Pakistani women has dropped from 66.5 to 65.5, while men’s life expectancy still remains lower than women’s despite witnessing an increase from 64.3 to 64.5
According to PBS’s Pakistan Demographic Survey (PDS) 2020, the overall average age of citizens declined from 65.4 years to 65 years mainly due to the increasing cases of cardiac arrest.
Apart from heart disease, which accounts for 14.74 percent of all deaths each year, fever is responsible for 9.28 percent of fatalities, stroke for 6.45 percent, diabetes for 5.63 percent, cancer for 5.50 percent, asthma for 3.85 percent, and other respiratory disorders for 3.64 percent deaths. Also, hepatitis is among the leading causes of death in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the survey also recorded a dip in the overall infant mortality rate from 62 per 1000 in 2017 to 56 per 1,000 in 2020. In rural areas, it was 59 per 1,000, whereas, in urban regions, it was only 50.
Separately, Pakistan has fallen seven places in the Human Development Index (HDI) during 2021 and is now placed at 161 out of 191 countries around the globe.
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report, Pakistan’s HDI value is only 0.544, which puts it in the low human development category among the worst 30 countries in the world.
