Pakistan younger than India with its largest youth population: Report

Neighbouring Pakistan just got young. A new National Human Development Report issued by the United National Development Programme Pakistan has said that at present the country has the largest population of young people.

According to Pakistan-based Dawn News, the report says that 29 per cent of Pakistan’s population is between the age of 15 and 29 years while 64 per cent of it is below 30 years of age. This makes Pakistan younger than its neighbours India and China. The only country younger than Pakistan in the South Asian region is Afghanistan.

However, the report also points out that 90 per cent of the youth in Pakistan do not have access to recreational facilities while merely 15 per cent have access to the internet.

In a worrying aspect for the country, the report points that 76.9 per cent of youth population of Pakistan drop out of educational institutions primarily due to financial constraints, reported The Express Tribune.

According to the UNDP report, Pakistani youth between the age of 15 and 29 comprises more than 41 per cent of the total labour force of the country.

It further quoted the UNDP report as saying, “In Pakistan the current median age of 22.5 is expected to hover at around 31 years by 2050, beyond which, the window of opportunity will start to close for good."

The report also suggests that Pakistan needs to create almost a million jobs every year to absorb its growing young population in employment sphere.