Middle Class in Pakistan

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

Is there any website or statistics on how much of Pakistan’s population is middle-class? How much is considered living in poverty? And how much percentage are considered as upper-class or rich?

I guess the first thing is to identify the criteria for what is middle-class. Also what is used as a criteria for poverty or living below poverty?

Any sources of such information, pls?

2

I don't know of any website that states such facts about Pakistan. It would be nice to know though.

I don't know what the international criteria is for middle class, but I think the U.N. classifies people living on less than 1 U.S. dollar a month as poor.

3

it's is $1/day

4

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Matsui: *
it's is $1/day
[/QUOTE]

I stand corrected. Thanks, Matsui.

5

So we have established the bottom line of middle class at approx $30/mo, which is about Rs 1,750/mo.

The main reason I asked this question is that most of Pakistan's population lives in villages, and I'd like some decent statistics to see what is the percentage of population which lives on or below poverty and which percentage is considered middle class.

I have never lived in the villages, however, from an anecdotal stand point, I have a fair idea for cities (Lahore, Karachi, Isb etc), but some reliable statistics will be helpful there too.

Thanks.

6

http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/publications/yearbook_2003/yearbook2003.html
^
Faisal I am not sure if this is exact kind of information you are interested in?

Also you can check the CIA factbook on Pakistan.

7

http://www.un.org.pk/nhdr/htm_pages/cp_1.htm

8

Interesting topic, but being a Pakistani and knowing how different things are in Pakistan I wonder if the $1 figure is applicable to Pakistan? I would think it isn't.