Pakistan may have 335 million souls in 2050, says ADB report

Pakistan is projected to have 335 million population by 2050 that is 81.4 percent more than the existing population, an Asian Development Report 'Asia 2050, Realizing the Asian Century' says. According to the report, Asia in 2050 will be heavily influenced by the relative demographic weight of South Asia. By 2023, roughly a decade from now, South Asia (with India) will be more populous than Northeast Asia (which includes China).
By 2050, Pakistan will have added more than twice the amount of people than China to the total Asian tally. The balance of Asia's population will have shifted from Northeast Asia to South and Southeast Asia. According to the report, the demographic dominance of China and India notwithstanding, in the next decades the list of the largest countries in the world will continue to be dominated by Asia.
Between now and 2050, there will be three additional Asian countries with the distinction of belonging to the ten most populous countries in the world: besides China and India, there will be Pakistan (335 million), Indonesia (288 million) and Bangladesh (222 million) in the "top ten".
The report reveals that the Asian population giants, China and India will see very different demographic trends. By 2050, China's population is estimated to have peaked around 2032, and be at 1.4 billion, which is only 63 million more than in 2010. Central Asia has a regional economic forum, CAREC, which over the first ten years of its existence has contributed to improved trust, investments in regional transport and energy infrastructure and the facilitation of regional trade, so claims the report.
With a membership of ten countries, including Afghanistan, Mongolia, Pakistan and PRC, and with support from six multilateral institutions the capacity of CAREC to intensify its efforts to support regional integration within the region and beyond is very significant. However, it does require the active engagement of all member countries at the highest level and a willingness of all participants to overcome what are still high barriers to integration and risks of conflict.
The report discloses that the gender parity in primary education has almost been achieved in most countries, though Pakistan and Afghanistan are exceptions. Gender parity is on track at the secondary level though it is slow in many places at the tertiary level.
'Asia 2050, Realizing the Asian Century' argues that when considering Asia's economic and social prospects and challenges, it is important to keep in mind the many paradoxes that abound in the region. While it is the world's fastest growing region, Asia is still home to nearly half of the world's absolute poor (with per capita incomes of less than US $1.25 a day). Asia has become the global hub of manufacturing and information technology services, and yet vast numbers of its people are illiterate and unemployed. The rapid ageing of societies is a particular concern in Japan, Republic of Korea and China, while Pakistan, the Philippines and many Central Asian republics still have high population growth rates. The region is home to the largest savings pool in the world and the largest net lender to the developed countries, but it simultaneously has massive unmet investment needs at home-particularly in infrastructure and urbanisation.
According to the report, two Asian borders already show very high disparities between countries. First, Democratic People's Republic of Korea has lagged significantly behind Republic of Korea and increasingly behind the Northeast region of China. Second, the income differential between Singapore and Indonesia reached 14:1 in 2010.
In the future, as a growing number of individual Asian countries grow rapidly, the border divisions could sharply expand over time if their neighbours fall behind. If India continues to grow fast, the ratio between its real income level and that of Bangladesh and Pakistan could widen from today's manageable 2.1 and 1.3, respectively, to as high as 2.9 (India/Bangladesh) and 5.2 (India/Pakistan) by 2050. For comparison, the income ratio between the United States and Mexico today is 3.2 (in Purchasing Power Parity terms). Other borders with high income differentials between fast growing and slow growing Asian countries could emerge in Central Asia, the report forecasts.