Size and sociodemographic characteristics of the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan

Abstract

Some recent data are presented on the size and selected sociodemographic characteristics of the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan. Although the official figures show that there were 3.27 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, it is estimated that the actual number may be as high as 3.6 million. There is an excess of females over males, mainly due to war-related activities and excessive casualties particularly among males. While infant and childhood mortality rates are declining and are lower than the levels prevalent in Pakistan, as well as in Afghanistan during the pre-war period, the fertility levels among Afghan refugees seem very high indeed.

PIP: Afghan refugees, most of whom settle in Pakistan, are the largest group of refugees worldwide. By the end of 1988, there were 3.27 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan; an additional half million unregistered refugees are believed to have settled into Pakistan's urban areas. Official data on registered Afghan refugees in camps indicate that children comprise 51% of the refugee population and there is a surplus of adult females (a sex ratio of 88 adult males per 100 adult females). The fertility of Afghan women in refugee camps appears to be exceptionally high (13.8 in the North West Frontier Province) and at least 700,000 births have occurred in the camps since 1979. Official statistics indicate an average family size for registered Afghans of 6.2 persons, slightly below the maximum allowable figure of 7. However, a 1986 study by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development found that 8.5 was the average such household size. It this is correct, the actual number of registered Afghan refugees at the end of 1988 was 3.6 million rather than the official estimate of 3.27 million. To date, 7 sample surveys have been conducted on these refugees. Included among the many findings of these surveys are the following: an infant mortality rate 28% lower than that in Pakistan as a whole; substantial improvements in the past 3 years in the nutritional status of Afghan refugee children; a total marital fertility rate of 14 and a general fertility rate of 400/1000 women; a current contraceptive usage rate of 3%; support for child spacing by 44% of refugee women interviewed; the loss of 1.1.5 million Afghans in the 1978 war; a literacy rate of 40% among men and 3% among women; and a lack of sufficient income to cover basic subsistence needs on the part of 70% of refugee households.