Chapter 01 · The Map
Click anywhere in the country.
Seven regions and 31 cities, each with its numbers at a glance. Colour the map by poverty, literacy or what each government spends per person. The detail behind every card is in the chapters that follow.
Boundaries follow Pakistan's official political map (Survey of Pakistan, August 2020), drawn here from Natural Earth's public-domain Pakistan point-of-view dataset. Jammu & Kashmir is shown as disputed territory whose final status is to be decided in line with UN Security Council resolutions; Junagadh & Manavadar and Sir Creek are shown as on the official map. Other countries depict these areas differently. Coastlines and borders are generalised to 1:10 million scale.
Side by side
The four provinces in one table.
Punjab has the most people and the least poverty. Balochistan has the most land and the most poverty. Sindh and Punjab raise the same provincial tax; Sindh does it with fewer than half the people.
| Province | People, 2023 | Poverty | Literacy | Budget FY27 | Per person | Development | Own tax body, FY26 | Health + education per person |
|---|
Per-person figures divide FY2026-27 allocations by the 2023 census population; the population has grown since, so true per-person figures are a little lower.
Balochistan's poverty rate is double Punjab's.
Share of people below the national poverty line, 2024-25, %
Punjab spends the least per head on health and schools.
Health plus education allocation per person, FY2026-27, rupees